Chapter 49 - Doll House(26)

Forget it.

Chu Yi didn't dwell on it any further

He would reveal his wolf's tail sooner or later.

The 'he' in Chu Yi's mouth naturally referred to the witch but regardless of his absence, it was a still an absolute fact that breaking the taboo of the sacrifice and foregoing the Festival, would undoubtedly bring this vicious cycle to a stop and free the souls of the hapless children.

A sudden thought flashed through Chu Yi's head.

Since the doll's trapped the souls of the children, then was Ruan Quishi's identity in this instance one of them?

Chu Yi brushed away the inexplicable thought and sneered.

Who cared about him anyways.

For the next two days, as if the system was giving out amnesty, no one died nor suffered any life threatening injury, nevertheless this could just be a prelude to suffering, like the last supper in the chronicles of the Bible, the calm before the bloody storm.

However, regardless of the fear and tension, there was nothing else they could do but wait.

Wait for the final and resounding judgement.

The 7th day

The morning was unexpectedly bright, sunshine through the never ending fog of gloom, shining a stong and golden light on the castle walls. The darkness seemed to have resided, giving way to a ray of hope and light as they welcomed a new day. The sounds of twittering birds sounded loudly in the sunlight, the rustling of dewy leaves, and the occasional shake of the forest grounds, as if even nature was celebrating the dawn of a new day.

And yet in the eyes of the awakening players, none of this could be appreciated. In fact some of them felt disgusted to see the light, as if such a day should have shrouded in the darkness, never to see the light.

"Let's go"

Chu Yi withdrew his gaze from the open windows, an ironic sneer at the corner of his lips.

The malicousness of the castle wasn't missed by him.

One by one the players gathered in the open hall.

The solemn and gloomy looks on their face was particularly incompatible with the sudden brilliance of the castle.

So when the butler arrived, faced with the faces devoid of any joy, it wasn't a suprise, that the ever loyal butler, face quickly fell into hideous snarl.

As if they had done the most hideous of crimes, he screeched shrilly,

"What kind of servants are you! In such a joyous and goodly day, you show such dastardly faces in the house of the Madam!"

"You should be hanged like the previous batched and your bones pulled to feed the hounds!"

The players didn't react much to the butlers screams, after days of getting along, they knew that regardless of whether their reactions were enthusiastic or not the butler would still find a reason to scream and criticize their loyalty.

Today, no one was in the mood to entertain him and after a lackluster and sparse applause, the room quickly fell silent.

The butlers face was hideous but as if he had remembered something happy, a splendid smile lit up his wrinkled face.

"Today is the Candle Lit Festival, one of the most sacred and anticipated event of this castle and you this lucky batch, have the honor of witnessing the ceremony first hand!"

The butler clapped his hands in celebration, the joy on his face, even made him look amiable and pleasant and yet the players faces quickly paled.

Wasn't this just an excuse to send them to death?

They all knew it but there was no way to avoid it and they could watch sullenly as the butler performed his own one man show, complete with both a performance and applause.

"First there must wide preparations for the ceremony, nothing must go wrong in face of such sacredness."

"But nay, you lucky fellows have been given the opportunity to relax and wait for the ceremony to commence, such an honor yas been bestowed upon you!"

The Madam herself wishes to present you with the most splendid ceremony ever held in the history of the castle!"

For the following words, the players could hardly focus.

This was the precursor to the final fight and the time they were given to relax was the buffer time that the instance gave them to find a way to live.

It was only when the Butler walked away from the players, did they come to their senses.

They looked around at each other.

"What should we do now?, do we just wait for the ceremony and find a way to escape during the critical moment or do we find a way to escape now?"

No one had the answer and both paths were risky and dangerous, there was no guarantee that one method was correct.

Before Chu Yi could speak up and give them a suggestion, Shi Xiadong spoke first.

"I have a tentative idea."

Chu Yi raised an eyebrow and swallowed his words.

Shi Xiadong continued under the curious eyes of the players

"I have a hunch that the previous hunt was giving us a clue. The Little Young Master mentioned to us about the Five Emperors Coins and we've all agreed that it's one of the top artefacts related to luck, But what exactly is he suggesting to us and what does the hunt have to do with it?"

The players thoughts were slowly guided in that way

Lui Quishi however was the first to burst out and with bright eyes he shouted,

"The broken shards!"

Shi Xiaodong nodded with a soft smile,

"Yes! The broken shards. The Five Emperors Coin is a medium to store luck, but the shards we've collected are probably a whole of an Emperors Coins that have broken into tiny pieces."

"If we find a way to fix the shards and then siphon back the luck stolen during the sacrifice, not only will the instance have a high degree of completion, not only will we have a sure fire method to stop the cycle, we'll also have a high degree of completion for this instance!"

"Yes! Brother Xiadong is awesome!"

Under the enthusiastic and fanatical look of Lui Quishi, a big man like Shi XiaoDong unexpectedly blushed slightly.

Although it was quick to disappear, it was long enough that even Chu Yi noticed.

This pair was interesting.

Zhong Feng stood to the side, watching the antics of the others, an inexplicable sneer on his face, especially when he looked closer at Chu Yi.

"This method sounds grand and all, but you forgot to mention a few things. First of, who know if we can end up fixing the coin in the end and who's to guarantee that we can use it to siphon the luck from the sacrifice. No matter how grand you make this sound, in the end, such a method is nothing more than whimsical thoughts that will end up leading to your death in the end."

The cheers in Lui Quishi's throat stuck, his face quickly turning red from anger.

Even though, what he said was true in all fairness, it still felt particularly uncomfortable to the ears.

Like a balloon that had been popped, the previous somewhat enthusiastic atmosphere quickly became stifled and heavy and no one spoke a word.

A drak emotion arose in the heart of Chu Yi, indifferent and chilled, cold anger rising in his eyes.

He wasn't angry at Zhong Feng for speaking, he was angry at him for ruining the pure and hopeful emotions that had arisen.

Before his thoughts could form however, Shi XiaoDong broke the depressing atmosphere.

"Yes, this method isn't plausible for the time being, so it can only be used as a backup. For now, we'll all seperate and look for any additional clues before the ceremony officially begins."

"Well meet back here in an hour."

The others nodded in agreement but the previous hopeful atmosphere had already long cooled down.

Lui Quishi frowned but didn't say anything in the end.

Unhappily following Shi Xiaodong, as the players slowly broke off.

Chu Yi glanced meaningfully at the still sneering Zhong Feng before turning his back and leaving like the rest.

He still had one last conjecture to verify.