Using a prop to treat his gunshot wounds, World Returns to Fire stepped in front of the four paintings. He tilted his head, studied them carefully for a moment, and offered his suggestion.
"Of the four paintings, the first three are combat-oriented. The last one is an unsolved mystery. Personally, I suggest choosing the mystery. Guan Ya is a Scout, so logical deduction is her forte, and aside from Brother Red Chicken, none of us lack the necessary intellect. If we choose a combat scroll, based on the astromancy readings from earlier and the status of Pan's Labyrinth, our team is very likely to suffer casualties."
*True. Even though the sole-heir Knight's actual combat prowess exceeds level seven and I have plenty of trump cards, given the difficulty of Pan's Labyrinth, choosing a combat trial would make it hard to guarantee everyone makes it out alive.* Zhang Yuanqing thought for barely two seconds before agreeing with World Returns to Fire's suggestion. He nodded.
"No problem! We'll go with the Castle Mystery."
The core members of the team were all from orderly classes of the Second District, and the orderly classes of the Second District did not have an innate advantage over the evil classes of the First District.
Skills like Guan Ya's Insight and Iron Will could counter an Illusionist's shapeshifting, Mental Strike, and mental manipulation.
The Wood Monster props and medicinal pills in everyone's inventories could alleviate a Witch Doctor's gu poison, and the close-combat skills of Fire Specialists and Swordsmen could contend with a Bewitching Demon.
However, the evil classes of the First District had abilities like an Alcoholic's Confusion and a Toxic Chemist's Aberration, which Guan Ya and the others could neither counter nor neutralize—they could only endure them through sheer toughness. Consequently, casualties could easily occur.
By comparison, the artistic tone of the Castle Mystery leaned toward something brighter and milder. Guan Ya was a Scout, making investigative deductions her area of expertise.
Pan's Labyrinth was a prop originating from the First District, where Scouts did not exist. Normally, the difficulty of the Castle Mystery would not be low, but their expedition team happened to have a Scout from the Second District among them. Choosing the Castle Mystery offered the highest survival rate.
Zhai Cai, Sun Miaomiao, and the others weighed the pros and cons in an instant and nodded in agreement.
Only Brother Red Chicken looked utterly dejected. "Isn't fighting way more straightforward than using your brain? Don't look down on me just because I'm only level five. If I go all out and risk my life at full strength, even a level six would think twice before messing with me."
"We came here to hunt for treasure, not to throw our lives away," Zhao Chenghuang said coldly.
Zhai Cai completely ignored Brother Red Chicken's protest. He was the first to stride toward the painting of the Castle Mystery. "I'll scout the way. Follow behind me."
He stopped before the fourth painting and waited a few seconds. Seeing no reaction, he tentatively reached out and touched the scroll.
The moment his palm made contact, he transformed into a beam of white light and was sucked into the painting. A second later, inside the garden depicted on the canvas, a figure wearing a black mink coat appeared.
Zhang Yuanqing waited a few seconds. Seeing nothing abnormal within the painting, he promptly said, "Let's head in. According to the rules, the painting's plot will only trigger once six or more people enter."
He walked toward the Castle Mystery, reached out to touch it, and turned into a beam of white light, entering the world within the painting.
The others followed suit, touching the scroll one by one to enter the painted world.
Blinding light filled Zhang Yuanqing's vision. Several seconds passed before his sight cleared, revealing a brilliant sun hanging in an azure sky. A spire-topped granite castle stood in a garden bursting with blooming flowers.
Ahead of him stood Zhai Cai in his mink coat, looking around. Behind him, beams of white light descended from the sky.
The lights coalesced into Sun Miaomiao, Zhao Chenghuang, World Returns to Fire, and Brother Red Chicken.
As his teammates stepped into the painting one after another, a notification chime sounded by Zhang Yuanqing's ear:
[Ding! Welcome to the Painted Scroll World—Castle Mystery!]
[Please solve the mystery within the allotted time (three hours). Otherwise, whoever died in the case will truly perish and cannot be revived.]
[Your identity is a sorcerer from the East. No one knows your true name; they only know your surname is Dong and that you excel at spirit writing. You are close friends with the master of the castle, Ya Lance. Not long ago, you received a letter from Ya Lance containing: "She has returned. My family is on the brink of ruin. Please help me!" (Can be disclosed)]
[The master of the castle, Ya Lance, is dead. Please find the murderer.]
After listening to the prompt, Zhang Yuanqing immediately turned to the teammates beside him and said, "I received a character role. What about you guys?"
He promptly shared his character's information with the group.
Zhai Cai said, "My role is the family doctor, named Daniel. No additional information."
Sun Miaomiao said, "My role is Sandy Lance, daughter of the castle's master, Ya Lance. No additional information."
Zhao Chenghuang said, "Lunn, the castle's gardener. No additional information."
World Returns to Fire: "David, private tutor to Miaomiao—no, to Sandy Lance. Likewise, no additional information."
Brother Red Chicken: "Monroe, a castle servant with Bigfoot blood. Characterized by being hideous and possessing boundless strength, working as heavy labor in the castle... Damn it, what the hell is a Bigfoot? Couldn't they assign me a slightly more respectable role?"
Zhai Cai burst out laughing. "Bigfoot is a monster that appeared in medieval Europe. Hideous, covered in body hair, known for leaving massive footprints, roaming forests and farms. Bigfeet loved eating humans and were extremely vicious, preferring to rip open a person's chest and devour their internal organs.
"However, they were exceptionally 'friendly' toward human women. When encountering a woman, they usually didn't eat her. Instead, they abducted her to use as a tool for venting lust and reproducing. Most women would eventually be eaten after failing to conceive over time, while a small portion managed to give birth to human-Bigfoot hybrids.
"According to the Holy See's deductions, Bigfeet were likely failed experiments created by Aberrants, with humans as their original base. That was why they could produce offspring with human women.
"This information is recorded in the Holy See's archives. Back then, to make me study hard, my teacher turned these records into ghost stories. Those were the tales I looked forward to most in my youth."
Brother Red Chicken cursed again, indignant over his assigned role. While everyone was absorbed in Zhai Cai's lore lesson, Zhang Yuanqing suddenly asked, "Where's Guan Ya? Hasn't she entered yet?"
The team looked around, only then realizing Guan Ya was nowhere to be seen.
World Returns to Fire frowned. "She should have come in..."
Although he hadn't paid special attention to Guan Ya, he trusted their team's coordination. Under these circumstances, there was no way she would have acted out of line and stayed outside alone.
Zhang Yuanqing's expression suddenly twisted. "Oh no!"
Without explaining, he bolted toward the castle.
The others hurried right after him.
The castle was dead silent; not a soul was in sight. The furniture and decorations were simple and austere, bearing a medieval style. In that era, this might have passed for 'magnificent,' but to modern eyes, even an impoverished rural home looked more lavish than this castle.
"There's no one in the castle. The key figures in this mystery must be just the few of us," World Returns to Fire quickly assessed, casting his gaze around.
After dashing into the castle, Zhang Yuanqing paused briefly. Behind him, Zhai Cai said in a deep voice, "Second floor, third room on the left!"
That was the room in the painting where a mature, beautiful woman had been standing by the window.
Zhang Yuanqing sprinted up the stone steps to the second floor and threw open the door to the third room on the left side of the corridor.
A heavy stench of blood rushed into everyone's nostrils.
By the square window lay a blood-soaked female corpse. She wore the gown of a medieval noblewoman, with long, narrow sleeves and lace embroidered along the neckline and cuffs.
Her abdomen was ripped wide open, slick with blood, and organs appeared to be missing.
Her facial features possessed the delicate, fair complexion of an Eastern woman combined with the sharp, three-dimensional contours of a Westerner.
It was Guan Ya!
At the same time, the notification chime rang in everyone's ears once again:
[Ding! You have successfully discovered the deceased. You may now nominate a culprit by vote. Voting method: every person must simultaneously chant his or her name.]
Zhang Yuanqing, Brother Red Chicken, and World Returns to Fire all cursed in unison, "Fuck!"
The sole-heir Knight added his own, "Fuck!"
Zhao Chenghuang's mouth twitched, though he held back from swearing.
Evidently, Guan Ya's role was the master of the castle—Ya Lance.
The Scout, the one most adept at deduction and observation, had started out as a corpse. That was precisely why Zhang Yuanqing and the others felt their minds explode.
Black, viscous energy surged into Sun Miaomiao's eye sockets as she activated Spirit Devouring. A few seconds later, she deactivated the skill and said, "There's no spirit. She probably isn't the real Guan Ya, just a prop conjured by the painting. I don't know where the real Guan Ya is."
"Guan Ya should be in the painting as well, but what condition she's in is unclear. That doesn't matter right now. What matters is that she's dead. If we can't find the murderer, the corpse lying on the floor will become her," Zhang Yuanqing said in a low voice.
While the two were talking, World Returns to Fire and Zhai Cai had already crouched beside Ya Lance's corpse to examine it.
After a few minutes, Zhai Cai spoke up: "The deceased has two fatal wounds. One is on the chest, where a sharp weapon pierced the heart. Judging from the wound, it was likely a rather broad sword. The other is on the abdomen—her spleen, kidneys, and liver were all eaten.
"In my opinion, the latter was the cause of her death."
Zhang Yuanqing squeezed past him to inspect the body, asking, "Why?"
Before Zhai Cai could explain, World Returns to Fire cut in: "Because there's too little blood on the chest. It looks more like her heart was pierced by a sharp blade after death. Also, let me add that the color of the blood on her chest is wrong—it looks diluted with water."
Zhang Yuanqing finished examining the body and grunted in agreement with World Returns to Fire's assessment.
Sun Miaomiao said, "If the cause of death is an eviscerated abdomen and devoured organs... which one of us did it?"
Everyone turned their gaze toward Brother Red Chicken.
"What are you all looking at me for?" Brother Red Chicken asked, looking utterly lost.
Zhao Chenghuang said flatly, "You're a descendant of Bigfoot. Bigfoot loves eating human organs."
Brother Red Chicken finally caught on. He clapped his hands together and laughed boisterously. "Case closed! Case closed! The killer is me! Damn, that was easy. Everyone, let's chant my name together. Hold on, let me check what my name was again... Oh, Monroe. My name is Monroe."
Everyone stared at him in complete silence.
"What's wrong now?" Brother Red Chicken asked, bewildered.
"Do you really think it could be that simple?" Zhai Cai asked with an amused smile. "Didn't the astromancy reading show that we'd face a mortal crisis? If you're the killer and the case is solved just like that, where is the crisis?"
Zhang Yuanqing nodded and said, "There are still many suspicious points about the corpse. For instance, the fatal wound on the chest. And the room's furnishings are far too neat; there are no signs of struggling or combat at the scene. Even if the castle's master were an ordinary person, she would have struggled or tried to run upon encountering a man-eating beast.
"Yet the scene is far too clean. There's no blood on the walls, bed, or window frame, nor are there any scuff marks on the floor from flailing limbs. In my view, Ya Lance, the master of the castle, was devoured while unconscious or under someone's control.
"Of course, even if that's true, the killer could still be Monroe. Maybe it really is him—sometimes the most obvious suspect truly is the culprit. But concluding Monroe is the murderer right now is too hasty.
"We only get one chance. If we get it wrong, Guan Ya is dead for good.
"My suggestion is that we search the castle thoroughly. We might turn up new clues."
Chapter 739