Chapter 7

It is always beneficial to find allies and avoid making enemies; this principle has no drawbacks.

As the heir of the White faction, Xiyu's best move right now is to meet up with the White Princess.

Finding the general would certainly be great, but the general, with the ability to determine victory or defeat in an instant, would be hidden as deeply as possible, likely not revealing themself until the very end.

On the other hand, the princess, with special skills, is especially important in front of ordinary warriors.

Xiyu threw the White Princess's skill card into the blood-red lake, waiting for a player to die before heading to the shrine in the center of the lake to wait.

As for what Peanuts and Yao Chena are up to right now, he has no leverage to spy on them.

On the west side of Qingming Hall, the mist dissipated somewhat in the seemingly bright but cold sunlight.

He Yingqi followed his classmate Tong Leshan to a pile of rubble, finding a relatively flat spot to sit down.

Although the two were college acquaintances and had a good relationship on the basketball team, their personalities were quite different.

Compared to the straightforward and thick-skinned He Yingqi, Tong Leshan, who was a little shorter and had a slightly cold look in his eyes, always thought a lot.

He took the initiative to cross his arms and ask, "So, you're really a warrior?"

He Yingqi sighed, "I already gave the antidote in front of everyone..."

Tong Leshan, frustrated, coughed twice and then fired off questions like a machine gun: "Why did you do that? You don't even know that pretty boy. Now you've lost your bargaining chips, and half of your identity is exposed. What use do you still have?"

This made He Yingqi awkward.

Tong Leshan's expression also wasn't good as he sniffed: "I know I was harsh, bro, but we're stuck in this damn place. You need to be more cautious."

He Yingqi nodded and then smiled: "Anyway, I don't regret it. I couldn't just watch others die."

"Are you from the White faction?" Tong Leshan suddenly asked, rubbing his forehead.

He Yingqi immediately answered, "Yeah, are you?"

Tong Leshan nodded.

He Yingqi couldn't help but smile: "I knew we were the same. So now—hey, what's wrong with you?"Since leaving Qingming Hall and starting the conversation, Tong Leshan had seemed uncomfortable. Besides coughing, he also appeared dizzy, and now his face looked as pale as paper.

Tong Leshan couldn’t answer this himself. He looked at He Yingqi with an odd expression.

Suddenly, a giant black snake slithered out of the overgrown grass!

He Yingqi sensed something, turned around in confusion, and then hurriedly supported his classmate: "Leshan!"

In the span of a few moments, Tong Leshan actually knelt and spat out blood.

He Yingqi's concern was heartfelt: "Leshan! Leshan! Help!"

Luckily, Wu Zhi, Sun Xiaya, and Tang Yanyan were nearby. They rushed over with wooden sticks in hand, shouting in panic: "Didn’t you see the giant snake just now?" "Quick, go back to Qingming Hall!" "Why is he vomiting blood? Did the snake attack him?!"

Tong Leshan convulsed all over his body and, with He Yingqi's support, fainted. He had to be carried back by everyone.

Strangely enough, although Tong Leshan had seemed like he was on the verge of death earlier, after resting in Qingming Hall for a while, he woke up. By noon, when everyone was brought back to eat by the doll, he was as usual, with no apparent issues.

After such a close call, being questioned thoroughly was inevitable.

When Xiyu walked in through the mist, he saw Tong Leshan sitting at the table telling the story: "At that time, Yingqi was talking, and I saw the snake slithering by. I thought I had seen it wrong, but the next second, the snake knocked me to the ground, and I don’t know how, but suddenly, I had no strength left in my body..."

Wu Zhi, stroking his chin, speculated: "Could it be that the snake was venomous?"

Xiyu hesitated for a moment, silently sat down, but didn’t dare touch his chopsticks.

Although he had staged the morning's events himself, the food before him had been sitting there too long, and even with a life-saving charm, he didn’t dare eat.

Fang Hao instructed everyone: "This means the snake still attacks us. Everyone, try not to act alone, it’s good to have someone watching your back."

"If we don’t know each other's identities, it’s better to go our separate ways. People are much more dangerous than snakes," Zhu Ge retorted.

Fang Hao wasn’t always in the best of moods. He coldly replied, "Do as you like."

Zhu Ge smiled briefly: "The snake attacked He Yingqi and Tong Leshan, and you’re all so worried. I guess you’re all from the White faction, right?"

Wu Zhi countered, "So if you’re so happy, you must be from the Black faction?"

Although Zhu Ge appeared demure, her behavior over the past few days had been sharp. Upon hearing this, she didn’t bother to hide her eye-roll.He Yingqi, who had witnessed the entire event, seemed to have little energy. He listened as his classmates chatted aimlessly, not saying a word throughout. Suddenly, he stood up and said, "I think I’ll take a nap. You all enjoy your meal."

Tong Leshan looked uneasy, stood up, and said, "I’ll go back to my room to rest as well."

The two of them walked toward the bedroom corridor, one after the other, just as Yao Chena and Huasheng were returning.

Yao Chena's eyes were swollen from crying, and she ignored her boyfriend. As soon as she sat down, she began to eat and drink recklessly, abandoning all care.

Huasheng awkwardly sat next to her, looking completely lost and unsure of what to say.

As Xiyu stole a glance at them, he suddenly heard a laugh behind him: "Seems like, no matter if they’re a couple or friends, when it comes to life and death, nothing matters. Strangers are better off."

He turned around and realized Luo Xiyu was leisurely sitting in a dark corner, drinking and eating meat, almost speaking up.

Fortunately, Luo Xiyu seemed uninterested in talking. He just tossed an apple to him and said, "Don't starve."

Xiyu wasn’t sure how Luo Xiyu dared to eat like that or if the apple was safe. He gently brought it to his mouth, then hesitated, putting it down, still unsure and holding back his hunger.

Luo Xiyu’s eyes, shining even more brightly in the darkness, revealed a trace of a mocking smile.

At that moment, Yao Chena suddenly stood up in surprise, picking up a dirty talisman from her bowl. "This... how did it get into my bowl?"

Huasheng hurriedly took it to inspect, both shocked and delighted. "It’s the rule that was missing this morning!"

Everyone immediately became alert, forgetting about their meals, crowding around, afraid of missing something important.

[Rule 3: Samurai players can choose to defect to the opposing faction at midnight.]

A simple sentence, but it made everyone break into a cold sweat.

Escaping from the weaker faction to the stronger one, and meeting up with friends and loved ones, was almost too good to be true.

Clearly, the rule had been found long ago, since it only took an hour to search for it. Why was it only showing up now?

Anyone with any brains in the room would have noticed the odd tension between Yao Chena and Huasheng, and between He Yingqi and Tong Leshan. This way, if anyone defected, the suspicion wouldn’t spread randomly—it would be confined to these few people. The person who hid the rule and then brought it out seemed to be deliberately targeting them.

Xiyu stared blankly at Yao Chena, who was smiling, feeling a chill down his spine from the insidious intentions behind it.

Luo Xiyu, who had finished eating at some point, sat next to Xiyu and smiled. "Did you suddenly realize that there are plenty of people smarter than you?"Xiyu didn’t dare to speak. After all, his passive skill of speaking the truth was extremely toxic.

But what he truly wanted to say was: this isn't about being smart, it's more about being seasoned, about mastering the... cruel and slippery routines after going through these things more than once.

Luo Xi suddenly grabbed the apple in his hand, took a bite, and said, "If you like it, eat it."

Xiyu was stunned, then snatched it back.

He didn’t want to eat something someone else had bitten, but he was starting to feel hungry.

At this moment, physical strength was more important than pride. Even if he was ridiculed, he had to keep going and survive.

Thinking of this, Xiyu used his shirt sleeve to cover the part of the apple Luo Xi had bitten and silently ate the untouched flesh.

Luo Xi narrowed his eyes into slits, looked at him for a while, and said, "The kitchen is to the south. You’ve spent the whole morning and still haven't figured out the map?"

Xiyu was taken aback and slowly put down the red apple that he had snatched.

However, Luo Xi no longer paid attention to him, standing up to leave the noisy hall.

Just as he was about to step out the door, distant shouting and a loud crashing sound came from outside...

It was coming from the bedroom!

He Yingqi was dead.

By the time everyone from Qingming Hall rushed over in a panic, this young man, who had just been full of life, was now torn in half.

The dismembered body lay in a pool of bright red blood, an extremely shocking sight.

The young Wu Zhi approached to take a look, immediately unable to stop himself from running to the side and vomiting.

Several of the girls were so frightened that their legs went weak. They dared not look any further and quickly backed away.

Xiyu stood by Fang Hao’s side, carefully helping to move the body to the overgrown grass nearby, piecing it together as best as they could. Both of them had extremely grim expressions, especially Xiyu, who had been saved by He Yingqi during breakfast. Besides feeling uneasy, a deep anger started to rise within him.

Surprisingly, Luo Xi didn’t react much. He even kicked Tong Leshan’s back and said, "Hey, how come he’s dead, but you're perfectly fine?!"

Tong Leshan, who had been kneeling on the ground, stood up angrily. "What are you doing?"Luo Xi sneered, "Don’t change the subject. If you don't answer this question, do you think you'll be able to walk away?"

Everyone gradually cast varying looks toward him.

The snake was the guardian of the black faction. If it could attack white faction players at will, why did it leave Tong Leshan alone for no reason? Moreover, this was the second time the snake appeared around him. Could it be... that Tong Leshan was an important member of the black faction, and that’s why the snake was drawn to him?

— Such thoughts began to grow, one after another.

Tong Leshan, frustrated, said, "I was talking with Yingqi earlier, and the snake suddenly appeared and attacked me. It was Yingqi who protected me! My life was saved because my friend protected me! Stop standing there and talking like you’re in the right!"

Luo Xi smiled without replying.

Tong Leshan continued, "And besides, I was injured by the snake earlier, as everyone saw!"

Luo Xi didn’t continue arguing with him. He shrugged and said, "Oh, well, my condolences."

With that, he turned and walked away coldly.

Xiyu watched the man’s back, his anger growing even more. After all the threats they had endured, someone had finally died. The psychological pressure brought by that terrifying corpse couldn’t be brushed off so easily, but Luo Xi didn’t seem to care at all? He probably didn’t even have basic sympathy, right?

...Forget it, why bother being so saintly?

Xiyu silently spoke the cold, hard truth to himself: There are too many uncontrollable factors around us. Who knows, the next person to lose their life so lightly might be me?

Maybe Luo Xi’s indifference was, at this moment, the only practical reaction.