(NT: One of the classic "Thirty-Six Stratagems" from ancient Chinese military tactics.  Refers to a stratagem of using an attractive person (usually a woman) to seduce/distract and entrap a target)

 

Niu Xiaohua’s Ability

Around the time limit, after the village chief obtained Cao grandmother’s scraps of cloth, he quickly returned home and put on the paper skin. At the same time, Xing Ye and the others were brought into the village chief’s house by the paper people. The village chief’s house was still quite large; he found a room for the four of them to rest.

After returning to his body, the village chief’s intelligence recovered a little. He said to Xing Ye: “Just now, you were just playing with me like a fool, weren’t you?”

Xing Ye and the others remained silent; at this moment, silence was the best response.

Fortunately, the village chief did not pursue the matter. After thinking for a moment, he added: “Although you delayed time to save your lives, what you said makes sense. I also think the blood of the living is more effective. I’ll let you live for now.”

After speaking, he pinched Yang Xiaomao’s tender little face and said: “Maybe later, the blood of just one person will be enough. They are all kids from the village; if one dies less, it’s a gain (NT: idiom meaning every small advantage counts.)

After that, he revealed a sinister smile, which looked quite terrifying in the lamplight.

The four were pressed back into the room by the paper people. Because someone was guarding them, they didn’t speak and lay down on the kang to sleep. Xing Ye took this opportunity to remove the paper substitute he used as a stand-in and stopped using points to maintain it. It was best to let the village chief think they had sneaked out at night, so tomorrow the paper substitute and the real person would not meet face to face — which would be awkward.

The village chief’s words cleared up many doubts in Xing Ye’s mind; only two things remained unclear: what the Mountain God truly was, and the existence of the Black Fog. It seemed they would have to wait until the day after tomorrow’s Mountain God ritual.

Early the next morning, the village chief, with paper people who were not affected by sunlight, escorted Xing Ye and the others to the village committee’s dormitory and roughly tied up the four guard-team players with paper straw ropes.

The four guard-team players: “……”

The village chief told them: “This is also for your own good. Under sunlight, you will lose self-control. Once you see the sacrifices, you’ll go mad. When we transfer the lodging, you will live with the sacrifices and guard them closely.”

Liang Ergou, seeing Xing Ye and the others also tied up, asked: “Village Chief, aren’t we supposed to kill these sacrifices?”

The village chief chuckled: “Before, I was careless. We can’t kill them yet. To kill the Mountain God, we need living blood. We must wait until the Mountain God ritual to act.”

Xing Ye said to the guard-team: “Looks like we need to declare a temporary truce.”

With NPCs present, the guard-team didn’t say anything. Over the past two nights and days, they hadn’t been idle; they had been wandering around the village and had gathered many legends about the Mountain God, forming their own guesses. Niu Xiaohua, Chang Laizi, Liang Ergou, and Zhang Dali each glared at Yan Hebi, their eyes clearly saying “traitor.”

Yan Hebi: “……”

On the way to the sacrifices’ courtyard, the four guard-team members carefully observed Xing Ye and the others, hoping to identify the high-level player who attacked them the night before. Unfortunately, all the sacrifices were children, whose appearances were too deceptive. Two girls held hands while walking, and the only boy looked completely innocent, making it impossible to tell who had the ability to move the arsenal.

After failing, the guard-team analysed why they were defeated so badly. All were battle-hardened players, and they concluded that one of the opposing players must have had the ability to copy QR codes. Perhaps when he entered the game, he discovered the game invitation QR code near a copier, thus gaining a similar ability.

However, such a powerful ability must have limits; it couldn’t be used continuously. He must have accumulated QR codes when not using his skill, saving for a long time to have enough. That night he probably used up most of it.

Moreover, the total failure the night before was due to being unprepared, which left them completely off-guard. Next time, that wouldn’t happen.

Thinking of this, the four looked at Xing Ye and the others with full combat intent.

Xing Ye: “……”

Although he guessed what they were thinking, he didn’t feel like exposing it. This misunderstanding worked fine.

The road to the main courtyard under the village chief’s escort wasn’t easy. Everyone experienced the helplessness of being controlled; even basic skills couldn’t be used.

Upon arriving, they saw Aunt Tian sitting in front of the gate, patting her legs and crying loudly.

Seeing the village chief, she wailed: “It’s over, Village Chief! I’m useless! This morning, when I went to deliver food, three of the sacrifice kids ran off. Who knows when! What do we do without sacrifices?”

While she was crying, the village chief arrived with several children. Aunt Tian immediately stopped crying, wiped her eyes, and ran to the chief: “Village Chief, you’ve already brought them back? You’re amazing!”

This confirmed that Aunt Tian was on the village chief’s side.

The village chief said: “From now on, the guard-team will also live here. Prepare them some good food. Also, to prevent escape, I’ll assign more people to help you guard them. You don’t need to worry too much.”

Only then did Aunt Tian smile, rubbing her hands and saying: “Village Chief, look at my old man — at night he’s dumb and absent-minded, and missing a leg. What should I do?”

The village chief said: “We’re out of Mountain God herb. After the Mountain God ritual, I’ll help Old Tian treat his disease. Don’t worry.”

Aunt Tian felt reassured and kicked Yang Xiaomao’s butt: “Run, run! You ran off yourself and took two girls with you. Too naughty! From now on, we’ll tie you up!”

Xing Ye: “……”

“Tying him is fine too,” the village chief said, looking at Yang Xiaomao. “Last time, Ermao’s blood took effect. Maybe the Yang family is special.”

Everyone’s ropes were untied, except Xing Ye, who remained bound. Cao Qian, Qian Daniu, and Yan Hebi stood behind him to protect him closely.

Upon entering the courtyard, their consciousness disappeared. Indeed, when they each returned to their own places and did things fitting their identities, they were no longer controlled.

After seeing Wang Sipang and Qin Xiaoer, the ten players were officially reunited, the scene was somewhat awkward.

The paper people locked them in a room and then guarded the courtyard with confidence. Aunt Tian helped the guard-team tidy up the rooms.

The ten players now formed three factions. Wang Sipang and Qin Xiaoer were the smallest and weakest. Wang Sipang glanced at Xing Ye and the others, sneered: “I really underestimated you. You ran away and even used three paper decoys as substitutes, managing to fool Aunt Tian for two nights and a day. This morning, when the paper decoys expired, she realized you weren’t there. Whose initial skill is this?”

Xing Ye didn’t answer him, but instead said to the guard-team members: “Wang Sipang and Qin Xiaoer should already know each other. Wang Sipang is a fate-defying player; he has a fate-following item — it’s the pendant around his neck. He once threatened us with this item, claiming he could kill fate-defying players and turn fate-following players into items. When he fought you guys the night before last, Wang Sipang tried several times to use the fate-following item.”

After speaking, Xing Ye closely observed the expressions of the four guard-team members.

Liang Ergou, suspected to be Cao Qian’s former teammate, looked puzzled, seemingly completely unaware of the fate-following item. As a new player from a high-level world, his ignorance was normal. Fate-following player Zhang Dali looked utterly confused, while the fate-following guard-team captain Niu Xiaohua showed a solemn expression.

Fate-defying player Chang Laizi also tensed, his gaze toward Wang Sipang full of vigilance.

It seemed Niu Xiaohua knew about the fate-following item. Xing Ye squinted; it was rare for a fate-following player to know about the existence of such an item. Even lucky players like Little Mirror wouldn’t be aware.

Wang Sipang immediately said: “I didn’t! I just wanted to control the team. It was only to scare them!”

“Whether it’s bluffing can be known by asking,” Niu Xiaohua said, walking up to Wang Sipang and smiling at him.

Niu Xiaohua was very beautiful, with a long braid, like the girl-next-door first love in a folk song. She lowered her head and kissed Wang Sipang on the cheek. Before he could react, she asked: “Tell me, what ability does your fate-following item have? Is your consciousness still there?”

Wang Sipang immediately said: “My consciousness has long been erased. The fate-following item is a jade Buddha with two abilities. One is ‘Cause and Effect Reincarnation’. When used on a player, it allows them to receive the ‘effect’ in advance. For fate-following players, the ‘effect’ is to become an item. So this ability can turn a fate-following player into an item. But such a strong ability comes at a cost: it requires sufficient ‘cause.’ Without enough ‘cause,’ I cannot turn a player into an item.

“The second ability is ‘Three Thousand Worlds’ — one flower, one world; one leaf, one Bodhi. ‘Three Thousand Worlds’ can turn a stone or object into a world. When a player enters that world, it becomes a defensive ability: within ‘Three Thousand Worlds,’ no attack can harm the player. Previously, I drew a QR code that said if I merged my initial skill with ‘Three Thousand Worlds,’ I could enhance my abilities, but I didn’t.”

(NT: Buddhist concept eliciting the vast potential in small things. ‘one flower contains one world’ implies that within each seemingly small thing, there is a whole world or universe contained. ‘One leaf, one Bodhi’ means that even a small thing (a leaf) can contain wisdom or spiritual significance.)

“Whoa, what ability did you use on me?”

Niu Xiaohua said: “’Beauty Trap’ — as long as you have lust in your heart, you will tell me everything. What ‘cause’ does your ‘Cause and Effect Reincarnation’ require?”

Wang Sipang really didn’t want to answer but still explained: “Kill one to save one. Whenever I turn a player into an item, I must use ‘Three Thousand Worlds’ to save another player from danger; otherwise, the jade Buddha will use my life to replace the dead fate-following player. This ability is really terrifying and I rarely use it.”

Niu Xiaohua sneered: “What’s the cooldown on these two abilities? Surely it’s not unlimited?”

Wang Sipang said: “Both abilities can only be used once every 48 hours. Their effects are too strong, so the cooldown is very long.”

This time Niu Xiaohua believed him. She then looked at Xing Ye and the others: “Who attacked us the night before last? What abilities?”

Xing Ye and the others: “……”

Qian Daniu pointed at herself and Cao Qian: “Captain Niu, are you planning to use Beauty Trap on the two of us girls?”

Niu Xiaohua ignored them and went straight to kiss Yan Hebi, placing her hands on his neck and teasing: “We’re teammates. Tell me.”

Yan Hebi looked at Niu Xiaohua’s face, the image of Lu Mingze from the mirror yesterday flashed through his mind, and he didn’t find Niu Xiaohua particularly attractive. He shook his head: “I don’t know. It was dark at night, and they covered my eyes. I saw nothing.”

His acting was poor, and he stuttered while speaking. Fortunately, Niu Xiaohua had confidence in her initial skill and didn’t doubt him.

Qian Daniu: “……”

She already knew Yan Hebi was bent!

 

Translator : DarNan