Frightening Joke: Above the Mist
Chapter 229 Problems

Chapter 229: Chapter 229 Problems

"In our lifetime, we meet many people and see many faces, but the most familiar yet unfamiliar one is precisely our own." Bai Yanliang looked at the group and said seriously.

"Our eyes, when seeing our own appearance, actually see a beautified version. This is your brain’s doing, or rather, your subconscious." As he said this, Bai Yanliang asked the air, "Are you sure the face you saw on that funeral clothes was your own and not a face that just looked somewhat like yours?"

After a moment of silence, Xu Zhifei spoke, "Not sure."

Then that’s right.

Bai Yanliang felt a bit more assured in his heart.

"What exactly... is going on here?" Lu Guo was thoroughly confused.

By this reasoning, wouldn’t his experience be the same as Xu Zhifei’s?

Wouldn’t he also suddenly become transparent?

Lu Guo quickly looked at his own hand.

Fortunately... no...

Indeed, at the moment Xu Zhifei saw the face on the funeral clothes, she turned transparent. If his situation were the same as hers, he should have experienced an abnormality earlier.

However, before Lu Guo could relax, he noticed Bai Yanliang and Yu Wenxuan both staring at him with an eerie gaze.

"Wh-what’s the matter?"

Lu Guo suddenly felt his scalp go numb.

Bai Yanliang looked at him and said seriously, "What can be confirmed is that you have also been cursed, just in a different form. Xu Zhifei became transparent." And rotten, Bai Yanliang silently added in his heart, "As for you, it’s not yet known what abnormality will occur."

Lu Guo slowly opened his mouth, wanting to refute, but found that what Bai Yanliang said seemed to be true.

Both he and Xu Zhifei saw a face that looked extremely similar to their own.

The difference is, Xu Zhifei believed that face was her own, while he thought it was a stranger’s.

Perhaps... this is where the bifurcation of anomalies lies?

I won’t... turn into a monster, will I...

Lu Guo felt a chill in his heart.

"Alright, that’s enough about this for now. It seems the curse isn’t immediately fatal." Yu Wenxuan said, "Think back to the decryption of this task. There’s one thing that’s been bothering me: everyone in Fog Gathering was divided into three groups, sent to three different villages to carry out tasks, but the decryption was the same. What does this imply?"

Bai Yanliang gave Yu Wenxuan an extra look, realizing he also noticed this.

Precisely, after reading all the blood letters in Fog Gathering, Bai Yanliang had this doubt.

Why use the same decryption though they were different places?

And... fundamentally, this task was actually the same task.

In some way, Fog Gathering is quite fair. The unsolvable task posed to everyone is equally challenging. Since it’s the same task, why not just guide everyone to one village instead of three?

"Mountain Moon Hiding, Water Coffin Retrieval. On the surface, this is easy to understand; it’s even straightforward." Bai Yanliang was about to cross his arms but suddenly remembered his left wrist was still tied to a transparent person, so he simply put his hands in his pockets, "Not being exposed to the moon and retrieving the coffin from underwater."

"The former is easier, the difficult one is the latter, Water Coffin Retrieval... which water? Whose coffin? Is the decryption telling us to retrieve the coffin? Or did the fierce ghost in this case get retrieved from the underwater coffin? If we don’t clarify these points, rash actions will lead to a dreadful outcome." Yu Wenxuan said, crossing his arms in a stance Bai Yanliang envied.

"Another point: why does this village have funeral clothes in front of every house? Why are all the funeral clothes red? These two points also need to be cleared up." Bai Yanliang added.

Yu Wenxuan thought for a moment, "About red funeral clothes, I’ve heard rumors about some remote areas still practicing spirit marriages even today."

"Spirit marriages?" Jiang Li said incredulously, having only heard of the term in movies and couldn’t believe the practice still existed in modern society.

"Yes, there are two explanations. One is that both contracted parties die young, and some believe solitary graves affect family feng shui, so they host a Netherworld wedding for the deceased couple, burying them together." Yu Wenxuan explained.

"And the second?" Jiang Li, though fearful, couldn’t help but ask.

"The second?" Yu Wenxuan smiled eerily, gazing hauntingly at Jiang Li, "The second is a live burial. Wealthy families would host a spirit marriage using live people as companions; they’d place you with a potentially decaying corpse in the coffin and bury you. No matter your cries or screams, the soil would fully cover your coffin, and no one will save you..."

Jiang Li imagined the terrifying scenario and the hopeless emotion from Yu Wenxuan’s description, momentarily finding it hard to breathe.

Bai Yanliang glanced at Yu Wenxuan, "Stop scaring her."

Yu Wenxuan shrugged with a smile and said no more.

Lu Guo listened quietly, and these two quickly identified the issues that needed to be clarified.

This reduced Lu Guo’s mental pressure by quite a bit.

They were indeed reliable; being with them meant never worrying about lacking direction.

But upon closer thought, Lu Guo still felt at a loss on where to begin.

"This village is so odd, how do we investigate? Knock on doors one by one? What if we walk into a ghost’s house, wouldn’t we be delivering ourselves to them?"

Yu Wenxuan looked at him, smiling, "Mr. Lu, there’s never a 100% guaranteed success in this world. For us, even a 1% chance is worth putting in 100% effort."

"As for ghosts? Haven’t you already seen one? What’s there to fear."

You really speak with ease from your own standpoint...

Hearing Yu Wenxuan mention that again, Lu Guo felt uneasy. He didn’t know if he was cursed, and if he was like Xu Zhifei, what his manifestation would be...

At this moment, the door suddenly creaked open.

"Creak—"

The sudden sound startled the restless Lu Guo and Jiang Li.

When they turned to look, they found Bai Yanliang had already pushed the door open with one hand.

"Where are you going?"

Lu Guo asked as he looked at him.

Bai Yanliang said while stepping out, "Going to find clues, while it’s still daylight."

Find clues... in this unfamiliar place, where could clues possibly be found?

Bai Yanliang was still in too much of a rush.

As Lu Guo was thinking this, he noticed Yu Wenxuan also stood up and left.

"You... you’re also going to find clues? How about waiting until we know more about the village?" Lu Guo advised.

"The ghost won’t wait for you to take your time, Mr. Lu." Yu Wenxuan said with a smile.

Even though he was speaking to Lu Guo, he didn’t actually look at him, but at Bai Yanliang instead.

"And besides, there’s someone in this room who’s ready-made, why not ask him?"