Mutual Redemption with the Villainous Boss [Infinite] - Chapter 37

“How, how is that possible! That was clearly…” Ruan Liangyan’s face was full of panic; he was terrified of the unbearable consequences that might follow.

Zhu Ci felt it was strange.

That mark was clearly placed on Tong Lexi by the High Priest in the previous dungeon as a warning that she must return return to this very place. So why bother hiding it for her in front of everyone now?

Xue Yaru was suddenly speechless. She had only done it as a test and wasn’t actually sure what was on Tong Lexi. She hadn’t expected someone to admit to it so easily, let alone have the High Priest echo their words.

Even more unexpected was that the High Priest did not state what the consequences would be. He simply offered Ruan Liangyan a smile.

Then, all the villagers turned toward him in unison, smiling at him at the same time.

It was eerie and terrifying to the extreme.

Everyone present couldn’t help but shudder, and Ruan Liangyan was so frightened that he slumped to the ground.

Lu Jun kicked him back up and cursed, “Don’t be so useless, these NPCs can’t hurt us.”

He staggered a few steps, nodding as if coming to his senses.

The High Priest left under the gaze of the crowd. The villagers performed another kowtow rite, ignoring the drenching rain.

Wulan, leaning on her cane, approached the players. Her face had returned to a kind, charitable smile, as if the scene of surrounding and pressuring them just moments ago had never happened. “Friends! Go back and rest. Today you have enjoyed the sweet dew; tomorrow will be a brand-new day.”

After returning to the room, Zhu Ci saw Tong Lexi sitting on a stool, clutching her shoulders and weeping softly.

Zhu Ci went over and handed her a dry towel. “What exactly happened?”

Tong Lexi had always been a sensitive, fragile person who cried easily. This time, she cried for at least half an hour before she could stammer out a complete sentence.

“I… I was waiting for you on the mountain, but a woman… she said she wanted me to go somewhere with her.” She sobbed and hiccuped, took a few sips of hot water, and draped the towel over her head. “I saw… a huge field of flowers. I couldn’t recognize what they were, just blue everywhere.”

Blue? Blue Feather Flowers?

Zhu Ci instinctively touched her chest, where the flower Dilireba had given her was tucked.

“That woman took me behind the flower field. She said she wanted me to rest for a bit and treat me well, but she pushed me down the mountain when I wasn’t looking! Cough, cough-cough!” As she spoke, Tong Lexi became more agitated and choked on her water.

“I fell very hard rolling down the mountain. My clothes were torn to shreds, and my back still hurts now. After I stopped rolling, I climbed up and ran back, but then I saw that woman standing there among all of you! I… I was too scared to go over.”

Zhu Ci hadn’t looked closely before, but Tong Lexi’s jacket indeed had many tears, looking as though they had been slashed by branches.

Zhu Ci asked, “What did that woman look like? Was she wearing local clothing with an extraordinary amount of silver ornaments?”

Tong Lexi’s eyes brightened. “Yes! And she didn’t look like a normal person… her looks were too… too striking.”

“Zhu Ci, how did you know it was her?”

It was indeed Dilireba. That face, beautiful as a painting, could certainly be described as striking.

“I met her too. She should be an NPC of this dungeon, living behind the High Priest’s house. However, she didn’t do anything bad to me.”

She had just taken a bath and changed clothes.

Tong Lexi’s eyes dimmed for a moment before returning to normal. She said, “Then I don’t know… I was just so scared. Zhu Ci, I’ve never been hurt this badly before.”

Zhu Ci comforted her for a while, poured her another cup of hot water, and told her to take a bath so she wouldn’t catch a cold.

After Tong Lexi left, Zhu Ci leaned her head on her hand at the table, recalling Dilireba’s actions today. Why did she give her this Blue Feather Flower? And what did she mean by “Wearing this flower will weaken the karma”?

She suddenly remembered something and took the stack of slightly damp documents out of her pocket. Fortunately, they were printed, so the handwriting wasn’t too blurred.

Zhu Ci spread them flat on the table and studied them page by page.

Looking through them from beginning to end, she discovered this wasn’t a simple notebook, but a chart…a record analyzing the life of every villager in Blue Feather Village. No wonder it spanned several large pages; it contained a brief biography of each villager, their activities over the past year, and a list of their relationships with one another.

It even included the nine players who had arrived this time.

The mentors were categorized as NPCs and were not recorded. After reading through it, only the Village Head and Dilireba were also absent.

Zhu Ci read her own section:

Zhu Ci. Resident of Deyan Town, Age 19. Immediate relatives: Father Zhu Honghua, Mother Ran Pei, Brother Zhu Yuan. Has survived in “Genesis: Weird Phobia” for two months. Karmic relationship with others: Rescuing Tong Lexi.

Only a karmic link with Tong Lexi?

And the phrasing of the karma was strange; Tong Lexi shouldn’t have encountered any crisis that required her rescue.

Curious, she looked at the others, focusing on the “Karmic Relationship” column.

• “Xue Yaru becomes friends with Wulan.”
• “Ye Yang becomes friends with Wulan.”
• “Jing Miaozhen praises Nuobu.”
• “Ruan Liangyan pays the consequences for Tong Lexi.”

Only these few people had words in their karma column; everyone else, including Tong Lexi, was listed as “None.”

Zhu Ci began to understand why Yan Wenxue had told her that her intelligence would be similar to this. Just based on personal feeling and Tong Lexi’s experiences from the last dungeon, Zhu Ci had thought of the method of “not answering” to avoid becoming entangled in karma with anyone, and she had shared this with Yan Wenxue.

She hadn’t expected this notebook to coincide perfectly with her theory. By responding to the NPCs, one would establish karma and form an inseparable connection with Blue Feather Village.

But would getting involved with a fellow player like Tong Lexi also create karma?

Zhu Ci puzzled over this for a long time. If interacting with players created karma, she should have a mountain of “fruits” by now given how many people she had spoken to. Why was there only one line: Rescuing Tong Lexi?

“Cough, cough.”

It was already very late. The clock showed it was nearly 11:00 PM. Tong Lexi had finished her bath and gone to sleep, while Zhu Ci hadn’t even taken off her own damp clothes. She didn’t realize it until she coughed.

It seemed she had been too absorbed in her research.

She took a bath and removed the blue-purple clothes, looking at them. She would return them after washing them; it would give her a good excuse to visit that place again.

The next morning at 8:00 AM, Ye Yang died.

Xue Yaru’s crying was heart-wrenching. Her wailing in the open space outside drew everyone out. Jing Miaozhen supported her swaying body and pulled her into the house to sit down. The players were all crowded into the room where she and Ye Yang stayed, and their expressions were not good.

For everyone to gather so completely even Qian Kai, who had been missing yesterday, was present…something major must have happened.

Yan Wenxue leaned against the wall, her halberd clattering crisply against it. She said, “Speak.”

Ruan Liangyan said with a heavy face, “Ye Yang… he’s dead.”

As soon as those words left his mouth, Xue Yaru cried even louder, slumped on a stool as if she were about to faint.

Ruan Liangyan was the first witness. Simply because his fear from last night hadn’t faded, he couldn’t sleep, so he went out very early around 8:00 AM to look for clues and find a way to escape quickly.

However, he saw a nearby door slightly ajar, emitting an unmistakable, strange odor. He sneaked inside.

To his surprise, a familiar face appeared before him. The player named Ye Yang had a pair of scissors plunged into his chest, and blood covered the floor. Curiosity turned to horror; Ruan Liangyan fled the room in a panic and ran headlong into Jing Miaozhen.

And that was how everyone found out.

“Scissors? Are you sure?” Yan Wenxue asked, sounding skeptical of the truth.

“The body is right there, go see for yourself!” Ruan Liangyan, being questioned, was agitated and emotionally unstable. “I saw it with my own eyes!”

Zhu Ci turned and walked out the door. The house wasn’t far from where Xue Yaru and the others lived; it only took a few minutes to get there. Tong Lexi shouted behind her to wait, wanting to go with her.

The room was filled with a faint smell of decay mixed with blood. Tong Lexi nearly gagged.

A pair of scissors was indeed buried in Ye Yang’s chest. The corpse’s eyes were wide open, clearly showing he had died with a grievance.

How could someone with item cards and a team ranking of 11th be killed by a pair of scissors plunged into their chest from the front? People like them, who frequently entered difficult dungeons, certainly carried life-saving skills, yet he had died so simply.

Furthermore, this wasn’t the work of an RM (Rank Monster). It was clearly man-made. A human had used the simplest method to kill a top-tier player.

After inspecting the scene, Zhu Ci took Tong Lexi back to Xue Yaru’s room.

Yan Wenxue asked her how it looked. She nodded, confirming Ruan Liangyan’s account: “There are no other fatal wounds, only the scissors.”

“How could that be…” Yan Wenxue was thinking the same thing.

“Let’s check everyone’s timing,” Zhu Ci suggested, scanning the expressions of everyone present. “It was one of us. We just need to see who is lying.”

Everyone’s face froze in shock.

Ruan Liangyan’s emotions flared up again. His face turned red, and he waved his arms wildly. “You suspect me? I really just saw it! You…”

“What, do you think I’m the killer? Would I kill my own partner and then wait to die in this dungeon!” Xue Yaru roared, immediately interrupting.

Yan Wenxue raised her halberd, pointing it at everyone. “Does anyone else have an objection? I don’t mind there being one more dead body.”

No one dared to question her strength; they all fell silent.

“Then let’s go one by one. I’ll start,” Zhu Ci said, seeing no further pushback. “We all left together yesterday, and Ye Yang was alive then. Who was the last person to see him? Xue Yaru, you lived with him. Where did he go last night?”

“Last… last night, he said he wanted to go out for a while.” Xue Yaru had calmed down slightly.

“What time?”

“It seemed to be around 10:00 PM.”

Zhu Ci asked again, “I went back to my room after 9:00 PM and didn’t go out again; Tong Lexi can testify for me. Did anyone see him after 10:00 PM?”

“I saw him outside around 10:00 PM,” someone said.

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