Chapter 385

Xu Ziyan had not noticed the other person’s little tricks, so he was currently a little hesitant. It was reasonable to say that they should proceed to the next secret path, but that wooden doll made him slightly indecisive.

There was constantly a feeling, that having those sudden thoughts coming to mind earlier, must have had a reason behind it. If he just threw the wooden doll there, it might cause very negative consequences.

“Then how about I… take a look at the central room first.” Xu Ziyan hesitated for a moment, then made his decision. It was better to figure out the wooden doll’s purpose first.

With the location of those secret treasure rooms being unknown, aside from Tianle, who had the key, no one else could enter the secret room at all. There was still some time before the closure of the world of fragmented continents, so why not explore more about that wooden doll first.

According to general assumption, that doll should be related to children, so Xu Ziyan began searching the courtyard for traces left behind by children.

It was the home of a moderately wealthy family, and it could be seen that life was very good.

Xu Ziyan’s divine sense swept around in a circle, which made him found the child’s room in the courtyard.

The room was not big, but it was seen to be well-decorated. It was evident that the parents of the household loved the child very much. Judging from the deteriorated furnishings in the room, it seemed to be a boy’s room.

Xu Ziyan’s footsteps paused as he took a step into the room, and he looked at Xu Zirong hesitantly.

A boy who likes playing with dolls… He recalled that Zirong also liked pink rooms when he was young…

He lightly averted his gaze, yet he pondered in his heart, should he make a set of pink clothes for Zirong someday? a_a Xu Zirong: =.= Why is Brother looking at me so strangely, and it’s making my hair stand on end as well?

Tianle was watching on the side in the meantime, then turned his head away bitterly: Showing excessive affection leads to a quick breakup! All those gestures of flirting and exchanging meaningful glances annoy me so much!

Xu Ziyan explored the room with his divine senses, and quickly found another wooden doll from the cabinet.

It was strange to say that even after thousands of years, the stored spiritual stones had weathered into ashes, yet those two wooden dolls remained intact, which was truly intriguing.

Being slightly different from the doll in the rice jar, the doll in the cabinet had the appearance of a little girl.

The doll was wearing a long dress, with delicate and refined facial features, lifelike appearances. When Xu Ziyan locked eyes with hers, he was in a daze for a moment, as if the girl doll had blinked at him.

Xu Ziyan: Holy crap! That scared the life out of me!

Xu Ziyan almost reflexively threw the girl doll away, and it landed to the ground with a crisp sound.

“Brother?” Xu Zirong stared at him in confusion.

Xu Ziyan’s expression looked conflicted as he spoke, “That doll blinked at me just now.”

Xu Zirong was startled for a moment, then looked towards the doll.

The unfortunate girl doll was thrown onto the ground, lying face-up. Despite it being a wooden doll, Xu Ziyan could see the look of grievance on its face.

Xu Ziyan: =.= What the hell, is this an act in a horror movie!?

Taking a deep breath, Xu Ziyan picked up the doll again.

There was a little dust on the girl doll’s dress, and Xu Ziyan patted it off for her. Out of the corner of his eye, the girl doll revealed a smiling expression. However, when Xu Ziyan looked over closely, he realized that her expression had not changed at all, as if all the earlier moments were just his illusion.

The corners of Xu Ziyan’s mouth twitched. If it was haunted, so be it. He dared not say anything else, unless that ghost was powerful enough to kill him instantly. Otherwise, everything else was just trash in face of his Victory Greenie.

The talent to destroy evil was not to be taken lightly! Any ghost that dared to provoke them in front of Victory Greenie would have to pay the price!

Holding the little girl doll in both hands, Xu Ziyan’s face twisted into a menacing threat, “Hmph, let me tell you, our Victory Greenie is very formidable. If you want to cause trouble, you better think about the consequences!” He even took out Little Greenie to spin around.

The female doll that was successfully intimidated was on the verge of tears. Her pitiful gaze made Xu Ziyan feel a twinge of guilt—— He could not help but feel like he was bullying a child. →.→

Feeling a little guilty in his heart, Xu Ziyan took the two dolls and wandered around the courtyard.

After carefully searching, they quickly discovered a clue that corresponded to those two dolls.

Although it was considered a clue, it was not a very clear one. They just somehow went into the artificial mountain in the courtyard and found a small ‘secret room’ within.

It was said to be a secret room, but in fact, it was just a small hollow space that was inadvertently formed when building the artificial mountain. For adults, that place naturally had no significance, but for children, it was a natural secret chamber.

In the middle of the ‘secret room,’ a thick blanket was spread out, and on top of it was a complete set of playhouse items.

All those things were made of wood, ranging from beds and cabinets to tables. It was a perfectly intact little room.

Xu Ziyan looked at those ‘toys’, and a very strange thought suddenly popped into his mind. Could that ‘secret room’ be specifically designed for the two wooden dolls to live in?

There was a miniature table in the secret room, and two chairs next to it, perfectly sized for the two wooden dolls. The most interesting thing was that there was a tea set placed on the table. Judging from the arrangement on the table, it seemed like two people were sitting across from each other, enjoying tea.

Xu Ziyan glanced at the table, then placed the two wooden dolls on the two chairs respectively. After a moment’s thought, he put the two small teacups into the hands of the dolls.

The two dolls simultaneously showed a smiling expression, but upon Xu Ziyan’s closer inspection, they returned to their original lifeless wooden doll state. They were now just completely soulless wooden dolls.

Xu Ziyan had no more further thoughts about those two eerie dolls. He rubbed his forehead and found that no sudden thoughts had popped into his mind again, so he simply grabbed Xu Zirong intending to leave the artificial mountain.

Unexpectedly, before they could leave, they heard a loud rumbling sound. A stone about the size of a human head fell from above the artificial mountain, rolling in front of Xu Ziyan.

Xu Ziyan: …

He could not help but feel that the timing of the appearance of that stone was quite coincidental!

Silently glancing back at the two dolls, Xu Ziyan discovered that the two dolls were actually making a tea-drinking gesture. The teacups in their hands were already at their lips, and even their expressions had become intoxicated, as if they were smelling the rich aroma of tea.

Xu Ziyan was terrified by that bizarre change. Although he had never felt any malice from the beginning till that point, encountering such a strange thing for out of nowhere still made him feel uneasy.

Xu Zirong glanced over and also noticed the changes in the two dolls. His gaze slightly narrowed, wanting to probe using the blood beast, but for some reason, he gave up.

He picked up the round stone and exerted a little force on his hand. The outer layer of the stone turned into fine powder, revealing a box hidden inside.

The box did not have any mechanisms or formations, so Xu Zirong directly opened it. To his surprise, he found no precious treasures, but a piece of—— handkerchief?

No, it was not a handkerchief.

Xu Zirong furrowed his brows. This red cloth was embroidered with two swimming mandarin ducks, and there were some colorful beads surrounding it.

Clearly, it was a bridal veil. Yes, the kind used by the bride during her marriage.

But—— what’s the use of that thing?

Xu Zirong was puzzled and handed the red veil to his brother.

That item did not emit any spiritual fluctuations and was purely made of ordinary materials. Moreover, even as an ordinary item, its workmanship was not very fine. Although Xu Zirong did not understand embroidery, there were several obvious mistakes on the two mandarin ducks, making it difficult to pretend not to notice.

In short, it was an extremely ordinary, crudely made red veil!

Xu Ziyan could not figure out the use of the red veil either. After examining it repeatedly for a long time, he finally confirmed that it was really just an ordinary red veil.

After a moment of silence, Xu Ziyan stuffed the red veil into Mr. Little Square. Whether it was useful or not, it did not take up much space anyway, so he might as well keep it first.

Leaving the house, confirming that there were no sudden thoughts in his mind anymore, Xu Ziyan and his group began heading towards the next secret path.

Along the way, they avoided two big tree monsters, a bookshelf with sharp teeth, and a bell with long legs…

In short, many daily necessities had turned into monsters in that central city.

After opening the mechanism and entering the secret path, the three of them finally heaved a sigh of relief. Each of those monsters had unique abilities. If they really did start acting up, Xu Ziyan and the others might not be able to defeat them. However, those monsters would give them no benefit and would take time to be eliminated. For the sake of efficiency, they simply chose to run and hide all the way, rushing directly into the second secret path.

The secret path was very quiet inside. It seemed that those kinds of secret paths were generally similar, but slightly different underground passages.

After walking for a while, Xu Ziyan saw a very familiar hall.

The dimensions of the hall were similar to the hall in the first secret path, except that the floor was covered with black and white checkered tiles, while the rest of the settings were basically the same.

However, this time, there were no lively and cute (??) brushes on the walls. Instead, there were two piles of black and white circular stones stacked in the corners.

As Xu Ziyan entered the hall, the two piles of circular stones suddenly stood up, one by one, looking in Xu Ziyan’s direction.

Xu Ziyan: …

Look at the floor, then at the black and white chess pieces, anyone could tell that the challenge required winning through playing a game of *Go, but…

*T/N: ‘Go’ is a traditional Chinese board game played on a grid of intersecting lines. The objective is to gain territorial advantage by strategically placing black or white stones on the board. It’s complex, but fun! 😀

Xu Ziyan: (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻ Damn it, what if I can’t play ‘Go’? Can I replace it with *‘Five in a Row’ instead?

*T/N: ‘Five in a Row’ is a strategy board game played on a grid, typically with a square wooden board. It is a simpler variant of ‘Go’ and players take turns placing stones on the grid intersections, aiming first to create a row of five stones horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.

Xu Zirong smiled faintly, took his brother’s place confidently, and directed the black stone pieces to fall on the wooden board one after another. As time passed, the black stone pieces gradually connected, progressively taking up the white pieces’ space. Although the white pieces struggled, even Tianle, who did not understand Go very well, could see that the white pieces had become powerless to turn the tide.

Xu Ziyan silently squatted in a corner and drew circles, secretly cursing at the person who set up the gameplay. They definitely had never played the more entertaining game of Five in a Row before!