“I understand,” Lin Wenyu agreed, not asking what Bai Ci planned to do.
Since he was in an instance with the Boss this time, he had already subconsciously given up on using his own brain to think.
In any case, once he told the Boss, the Boss would understand.
Seeing that they had exchanged enough information, Lin Wenyu immediately prepared to slip away.
“I should get going. I’ll sync all the clues with the Boss as soon as I get back, and once we have results, I’ll climb back over the wall to find you.”
Bai Ci nodded, picking up the quilt to wrap herself in it, preparing to go back to sleep.
Suddenly, she remembered what she had seen and heard at Qingfeng Tea House during the day. After a brief thought, she decided to warn him.
“By the way, I went to Qingfeng Tea House in the south of the city during the day. The storyteller there should also be a player.”
Lin Wenyu wasn't surprised at all upon hearing this. He nodded candidly. “I know. Don’t worry, he’s one of us.”
“Aside from you, me, and the Boss, there are two other male players in this instance. The Boss has already convinced them to band together and act in unison.”
“I see.” Understanding the situation, Bai Ci didn't ask further.
Lin Wenyu changed back into his black leather jacket. Using the outfit's effect, he left the room and made his way smoothly to the high wall of the Xu estate's backyard.
Switching to a denim outfit, he unfastened the rope hanging from his waist. This was a built-in accessory of the attire, meant to be used in tandem with its effects.
He tossed the rope, hooked it, and pulled. Leveraging his weight against the rope and stepping off the wall, he nimbly flipped over the high wall and landed steadily.
Without lingering for a second, Lin Wenyu bypassed the night-watchmen patrolling the streets with practiced ease. Weaving through the dim alleys, he soon arrived at the secluded courtyard where the players were temporarily staying.
The courtyard was simple and crude. Even after a bit of tidying up, it was barely fit for a short-term stay.
Fortunately, for players, being able to stay short-term was more than enough.
Strictly speaking, this courtyard was the legacy of that deceased mid-level cult member, which Lin Wenyu's Boss—a player named Xiang Jinsheng—had inherited using a class skill.
The lights in the courtyard were dim, with only a faint yellow candlelight filtering through the window frame of the main room. The rest of the side rooms were completely dark.
In the entire courtyard, only Xiang Jinsheng was still waiting for the results.
The other two players had their own tasks to attend to tomorrow. Moreover, there was no real difference in learning the information a bit earlier or later, so they had already turned off their lights and gone to sleep.
Ever since they handed over the leadership, they had taken a laid-back approach. If the sky fell, the tall guys would hold it up. Why should they waste their own energy worrying?
What if they were being tricked?
What else could they do? For someone they might only encounter once in a blue moon across countless instances, they would simply expose him on the forum and make him famous.
Lin Wenyu knew Xiang Jinsheng's personality. The Boss would definitely want to get the results as soon as possible. He knocked twice on the door and pushed it open directly.
Behind the desk, Xiang Jinsheng sat upright, holding a calligraphy brush in a practiced manner, writing the storytelling manuscript of 《Journey to the West》 for the curly-haired player.
“Boss, I’m back.”
Lin Wenyu sat down on a small stool nearby and detailed every conversation and clue he had discovered during his meeting with Bai Ci tonight.
Every single detail, without omission.
“Boss, you have no idea. When I saw those suture lines, I got goosebumps all over my body.”
Speaking of the body that had been forcibly pieced together and modified, Lin Wenyu still couldn't hide the shock in his heart, his tone filled with awe and horror.
As he spoke, he quietly peeked at Xiang Jinsheng's expression.
Under normal circumstances, any who heard of such a bizarre and horrifying secret ritual would be deeply shaken.
But what about Xiang Jinsheng?
From beginning to end, he remained as calm as still water, without the slightest hint of surprise or fear. Even his writing motion didn't pause for a second.
It was as if what he heard was not a shocking and ghastly dark magic, but the most mundane neighborhood gossip.
And the most boring, trivial kind of gossip at that.
A sense of frustration welled up in Lin Wenyu's heart.
He had been so shocked that he couldn't recover for a long time, yet his own Boss didn't show even a ripple of emotion.
But this frustration was fleeting, quickly transforming into an equal measure of admiration and respect.
Then again, that was just how the Boss was.
No matter how bizarre or perilous the situation, he remained eternally calm, always planning ahead, never allowing his mind to be disturbed.
After a moment of silence, Lin Wenyu couldn't help but ask.
“Boss, why do you think Bai Ci specifically asked us to look into the resurrection ritual's process and everything about Xu Qinghe's life? What is she planning to do?”
Xiang Jinsheng stopped writing and gave a definitive answer. “She wants to impersonate Xu Qinghe.”
He didn't stop writing because he was thinking or affected by any emotion; it was simply because the paper beneath his hand was full, and he needed to switch to a new sheet.
“Turning passivity into initiative. A very bold idea.”
Lin Wenyu only half-understood. He got what Bai Ci wanted to do with the information.
But as for why she wanted to impersonate Xu Qinghe, and what purpose that would serve, he still couldn't figure it out right away.
“It’s rare to hear you praise someone, Boss. Are you planning to invite Bai Ci to join our team? Brother Li left the team to carry a girl, leaving just the two of us support classes in the team. We’re at a massive disadvantage whenever we have to fight.”
In the instance before last, they had clearly uncovered every single detail about the monster, yet they ended up dying in the instance because they simply couldn't defeat it in combat.
Whenever he thought of this, Lin Wenyu felt incredibly frustrated.
“She is also a support class,” Xiang Jinsheng said, not even bothering to use words like "probably" or "possibly," stating it as an absolute fact.
“Even if we want to invite her, we have to wait until a new main attacker joins the team. It’s too early to talk about this now.”
Lin Wenyu nodded. “I get that. Setting aside team class compatibility, at the very least, our classes shouldn't clash.”
“Anyway, setting aside classes and all that, I just feel like Bai Ci is really good.”
“Your intuition again?” Xiang Jinsheng asked.
Seeing Lin Wenyu nod as if it were the most natural thing in the world, he wasn't particularly surprised.
“Understood,” Xiang Jinsheng replied.
In any case, they had no idea how many instances it would take before they actually invited someone new. There was no rush; they might as well observe her closely first.
“Since she has already begun to make her move, we should also speed up the harvesting of our contract over here.”
Time flowed by, and a few more days quickly passed.
Aside from waiting for Lin Wenyu to deliver information, Bai Ci hadn't been idle either.
Of course, just as she had told Lin Wenyu, several days had already passed. Directly asking about her dead husband at this point would easily alert their targets.
Xiang Jinsheng's guess was correct. Bai Ci planned to seize the initiative by impersonating Xu Qinghe.
Impersonating someone from scratch was by no means an easy task.
She not only had to figure out his personality, moral character, and behavioral habits, but also align with his talent, style, and literary essence, achieving a perfect resemblance in both form and spirit to deceive the people she needed to fool.
This was especially true since the people she wanted to deceive included Madame Xu—a mother who closely watched her own child—and two younger siblings whom Xu Qinghe had personally taught.
It was indeed inappropriate for her to keep probing into Xu Qinghe's past deeds, so she could only wait for Lin Wenyu to bring back detailed information before trying to profile what kind of person he was.
Therefore, Bai Ci made some preparations in other areas.
Rate on N.U.
