Chapter 165: Heading North

In a short time, Ning Zhe thought of many things, but it was just thinking. Before proceeding to verify his guess, he first needed to determine one thing.

"Do you remember how you died?" Ning Zhe looked at Xiao Ke's face in front of him and asked softly.

The awkward air solidified for a few seconds. Seeing that the other party had no intention of speaking, he felt he should rephrase the question.

So he continued: "Do you remember what happened to you?"

Xiao Ke bit her lip tightly, her eyes staring at him fiercely.

Xia Yubing hesitated for a moment and said cautiously: "I think you should move your hand away from her chest before asking this question."

"Oh, forgot." Ning Zhe felt the thumping heartbeat in his palm and could feel Xiao Ke's agitated emotions now, so he let go of his hand and asked again:

"Do you remember what happened to you?"

Xiao Ke struggled a few more times, unwilling to give up, but it was futile. Xia Yubing's physique and level of training were far superior to hers; even a healthy adult male couldn't break free from her arm lock, let alone an internet streamer with a chaotic lifestyle.

"Who are you?" Xiao Ke glanced at the evil ghost mask with green face and fangs on Ning Zhe's face, her tone almost a murmur: "I... I seem to have seen you..."

"You've seen me?" Ning Zhe frowned.

He was currently using Feng Yushu's identity, wearing Yu Zi Qian's mask. Xiao Ke said she had seen him; had she seen Feng Yushu, or Yu Zi Qian?

Before Ning Zhe could think too much, Xiao Ke's next words dispelled the doubt in his heart:

"I... I seem to have fallen asleep and had a very long dream, dreaming that I was sinking in a gray-white ocean, full of muddled people everywhere. I was very hungry, very empty, very... famished."

"I chased after a glimmer of light from the other shore like a moth to a flame, as if that light was everything."

"It was the food that could fill my rumbling stomach, the wealth that could satisfy my inner vanity, the indulgence of the shell that could release my inner suppression, it was... everything."

"I kept chasing, chasing, sinking deeper and deeper in that gray-white sea. I heard someone crying in my ear, heard the sound of wind mixed with crazy laughter."

"Giggling, cursing, tragic, angry, boundless emotions drowned me. I sank to the bottom of the sea and saw a huge face, buried deep in the deepest part of the endless, boundless emotions. That was the center of the world, all possibilities, and the initial One."

"Then He opened His eyes, and He said..."

"What did He say?" Seeing Xiao Ke's words pause, Ning Zhe hurriedly asked.

Xiao Ke shook her head: "He seemed to have said something, and seemed to have said nothing. He just looked at me quietly, just like looking at everyone else."

"Then I woke up, the hunger in my belly was filled, the greedy vanity was satisfied, the suppressed desires were released... I felt a pair of hands pass under my armpits, hold my shoulders, and pull me out of that deep sea, the lights of the other shore were close at hand."

"Then I arrived here." Xiao Ke's eyes were slightly dazed, as if her thoughts were still wandering in some place thousands of miles away: "That was really a very, very long dream."

Ning Zhe signaled Xia Yubing to let her go and continued to ask: "What about before the dream? What were you doing when you entered this dream? Do you have any impression?"

Xiao Ke stumbled, supported the wall with both hands, her eyes blurred: "I remember I was... streaming, right, streaming. The traffic-driving effect of this streaming event was very good, and more than a dozen captains boarded the ship in the stream."

"A big brother tipped a gift, asking me to play the game of One, Two, Three, Wooden Man with a stone statue in a courtyard. I had been playing games, interacting with the viewers in the stream."

"That courtyard had many humanoid stone statues, the ground was overgrown with lush wild grass as tall as a person, and more than a dozen stone statues were buried in the grass, like a group of naughty children hiding in it playing hide-and-seek."

"I stood at the entrance of the archway, with my back to the weeds in the courtyard, covered the camera with my hand, then closed my eyes and shouted 1, 2, 3, then let go of my hand and turned back to look at the small courtyard full of shadows. Some viewers in the stream would take screenshots of the screen before it was covered, and then compare it with it after I let go, just like playing the game of 'Find the Difference'."

"The viewers were very serious, but I didn't pay much attention to the stone statues in the courtyard, because there were many new viewers in the stream today, and several high-net-worth users who were generous."

"I put all my energy into pleasing the new big brothers. Although I also saw a few bullet comments saying they found that a certain stone statue in the courtyard had moved quietly when the camera was off, I didn't care, thinking it was a screenshot error or their misjudgment."

"But as the game went on round after round, the bullet comments in the stream saying the stone statues had moved gradually increased. I wanted the room manager to temporarily ban this group of people who were stirring up trouble, but found that the room manager was also sending them."

"I woke up from the impact of the gifts at this time, turned back to look, and a stone statue dressed as a woodcutter, which was originally shrouded in the grass, didn't know when, but there wasn't even a blade of grass on it."

"It was as if every time I closed my eyes and shouted 1, 2, 3, it was walking toward me step by step, until it completely left the grass and was exposed under the moonlight..."

"And then?" Ning Zhe asked.

Xiao Ke tried hard to recall the situation at that time, but couldn't recall more details, her head aching: "I, I can't remember, I don't remember what happened later, I only remember that there was a sudden sharp pain behind my head, then dizziness, as if someone had smashed the back of my head with a hammer, and then... there was nothing."

Her memory ended there, and the rest was just a vast white ocean.

Ning Zhe walked up upon hearing this. Xiao Ke, who was still dazed in her memories, didn't react, letting him grab her shoulders, lift her long hair, and reveal a patch of bloodstains on the back of her neck.

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He inserted his fingertips into her hair and gently combed it. A few strands of hair with blood scabs fell off between his fingers, but when he touched the back of her head again, it was flat, without the concave marks of being hit by a blunt object.

Because of time constraints before, Ning Zhe hadn't carefully examined Xiao Ke's corpse. Now, observing with purpose based on her memories, he discovered the large bloodstains between Xiao Ke's neck and hair.

Combining the state of the bloodstains and her own memories, Ning Zhe roughly sorted out such a timeline:

When Xiao Ke was playing One, Two, Three, Wooden Man with the stone statues in the courtyard, she was ambushed from behind. The back of her head was hit by a blunt object, and she died as a result, sinking into that gray-white dream in a muddled state.

After Xiao Ke died, her Three Corpses left her body and wandered in the town.

Among them, the Lower Corpse found Shen Qing and used his body to satisfy its desires.

Then it was he and Xia Yubing who arrived here, using treasures and food to satisfy the desires of the Upper and Middle Corpses.

After the Three Corpses were dismissed, Xiao Ke woke up from that muddled, neither-living-nor-dead state and stood before him.

There are many doubts, such as what is that gray-white ocean? What's going on with the other shadows in the ocean and those chaotic emotions? Who is the face at the bottom of the sea? What do the lights of the other shore refer to? Who is the person who ambushed Xiao Ke and killed her?

But Ning Zhe put all the above unknowns aside and asked the question he considered most urgent:

"Where is the courtyard where you were ambushed when playing One, Two, Three, Wooden Man, and what are its characteristics?"

Xiao Ke thought for a moment and said: "It's near the back mountain of Zanju Town, near the small quarry in the mountain. There are more stone statues there, and they are better preserved. Streaming there has a better program effect."

Ning Zhe closed his eyes and took a deep breath:

"North..."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 166 =====