I’ve Led the Villain Astray, How Do I Fix It?
chapter-395

I’ve Led the Villain Astray, How Do I Fix It?

Chapter 395

“Let’s wait and see.” Xu Ziyan also felt helpless. Without enough information, there was no way to deduce how to solve the trap.

Sitting on the second floor of the inn, they were bored as they looked out the window. At the moment just before night fell, the entire water town of Jiangnan underwent an unknown transformation.

The once colorful world suddenly seemed as if someone was forcibly draining the colors away, leaving only dim black and white…

“What’s going on here?” Xu Ziyan looked out of the window in shock. The previously black sky was currently covered in misty white, making the night scenery from earlier seemed like an illusion. In the blink of an eye, the dark night had transformed to its current state.

“Brother…” Xu Zirong called out softly, directly pointing to the first floor of the inn.

They witnessed the innkeeper in the lobby on the first floor stretching his waist lazily. His initially simple and honest appearance seemed to melt away from him, like a candle in flames.

In no time, a ghastly white skeleton stood behind the counter, shaking its head, which made a clattering sound. Then, a pair of blue flames suddenly ignited in the hollow eye sockets. The skeletal figure yelled at the inn’s attendants, “It’s time, hurry up and change the lanterns.”

Even the young boy working in the shop had turned into a skeleton. The flames burning in his eye sockets were smaller than those of the innkeeper. He nodded in acknowledgment and draped a towel over his shoulder. He then carried a soul-summoning banner, and changed the original inn’s signboard.

Xu Ziyan: …Did we just enter a ghost town in just a second? What happened to Jiangnan water town? In the blink of an eye, why is this entire place filled with zombies and skeletons?

Xu Zirong glanced around calmly. The few tables of guests on the second floor also underwent transformations. Most of them turned into skeleton zombies, while a few looked like normal people, but they occasionally revealed tails behind them and stuck out tongues that were a foot long, which was enough to prove their inhuman identities.

The skeleton boy hurriedly came to the second floor after changing the soul-summoning banner. Xu Ziyan initially thought that they would still be ignored, but he did not expect the attendant to wipe the table for them with a cloth and ask them with a playful smile, ” What would you two guests like? The millennium green bristlegrass from our inn has just matured, and it has a special effect on humanoid monsters like you.”

Xu Ziyan: …

Xu Zirong glanced at the attendant with neither warm, nor cold smile. The attendant felt a chill down his spine under his gaze and involuntarily shrunk his neck, straightening his back and said, “Actually, our inn’s Drunken Spring Breeze is also excellent. Its effect is comparable to the green bristlegrass, and has a rich mellow taste. It’s a specialty in our inn!”

Xu Ziyan remained silent, but gave Xu Zirong a glance. Seeing that the skeleton boy was afraid of tough customers, Xu Zirong’s cold face could always give off a queen-like aura, which was very useful in that situation.

Xu Zirong knocked on the table and casually said, “Bring a jar of it. Is there anything else that’s good here?”

The waiter hurriedly mentioned several specialty dishes in the inn one by one. Xu Zirong listened as he felt that they were all good things, but…

He raised a hand and interrupted the attendant’s promotion, “Since it’s our first time here, bring up everything that’s good, but…” He paused for a moment, and gave a kind smile, “How do you handle payments here? Do you accept spiritual stones?”

The little attendant nodded repeatedly, “Yes, not only do we collect spiritual stones, but also various kinds of heavenly and earthly treasures at a unified price. If dear guests need to buy other things, our small inn can also run errands for guests. Since you both are newcomers to our Ghost Jiangnan, you must be looking to purchase some local specialties. As long as you can afford the spiritual stones, our small town has many great things to offer.”

Upon hearing this, Xu Zirong nodded and casually dismissed the attendant. Not long after, their table was filled with a few small dishes and a jar of Drunken Spring Breeze.

Xu Ziyan opened the wine jar and sniffed it. The aroma of the wine was rich and very enticing. The side dishes on the table looked extraordinarily delicious.

He gulped, suppressing the desire to take a sip.

In that eerie town, he dared not consume any food until they figured out the situation there.

“Brother, everyone in this state can see us now.” Xu Zirong whispered.

Xu Ziyan casually glanced at his surroundings, and found that the zombies and skeletons surrounding them all salivated at their—— food and wine on their table.

Xu Ziyan noticed a skeletal figure with half of its leg bones missing squatting at the entrance of the inn, begging. Occasionally, some passing monsters would throw a few copper coins to it.

Several other guests on the second floor had resumed their own discussions. Two guests with the heads of a Siberian weasel were sighing about how business had become increasingly difficult lately, while a nearby skeleton and zombie were discussing the difficulties of the tasks left by the teacher at the academy.

Due to his cultivation, Xu Ziyan could hear a group of robust, rock-like monsters from downstairs complaining about a few new monsters at the pier, always robbing them of their business.

Watching those monsters living their lives just like ordinary people, Xu Ziyan felt a strong sense of dissonance. If he closed his eyes and did not look at their appearances, he would genuinely believe they were ordinary people struggling to survive.

The current question was, why were those monsters living in completely ordinary lives?

“Attendant, bring the beggar downstairs up here.” Xu Ziyan ordered. Although the skeleton attendant was puzzled, he obediently complied.

The limping skeleton beggar appeared somewhat timid when he came upstairs. He seemed no different from a real beggar, and Xu Ziyan even had a feeling that they might not even know they were monsters, but rather believed themselves to be ordinary people.

Xu Ziyan kindly chatted with the skeleton beggar, and thoughtfully gave him all the dishes he ordered.

The skeleton beggar was pleasantly surprised and regarded him as a good person. While stuffing himself with food, he answered Xu Ziyan’s various questions.

From the beggar’s mouth, Xu Ziyan actually managed to gather quite a lot of information. Compared to the ineffective communication and aimless eavesdropping during the day, that kind of targeted questioning was obviously more efficient.

That small town called Ghost Jiangnan had only one street. It was a very ‘ordinary’ town. The people who living there worked from sunrise to sunset, living a life as ‘ordinary’ as it could be.

The beggar himself did not know how long he had been living there. He only knew that it seemed like a very long time ago, and he had been begging there ever since.

If there was anything extraordinary about that small town, it would be the Ghost Deity Festival that the beggar inadvertently mentioned, which would be held after two days.

Xu Ziyan dismissed the beggar and arranged a guest room with the skeleton attendant. When he went to the guest room, he knocked on the door of Tianle’s room, but unfortunately there was no response, so Xu Ziyan had to temporarily give up the idea of reuniting with him.

As he was about to enter the room, Xu Ziyan vaguely heard someone calling his name, but when he looked around, there was no one else present except Xu Zirong.

He suspected that he might have misheard, but then he remembered Tianle’s reaction during the day. His heart suddenly skipped a beat. After returning to the room, he spoke to the air, “Tianle? Is that you? If it’s you, make some noise.”

Clank!

The stool next to the table was knocked over and Xu Ziyan was overjoyed, realizing that it was probably a response from Tianle.

He pondered for a moment and coincidentally noticed the teapot on the table. A bright idea came to mind and he quickly spilled some tea on the table.

Soon, an invisible finger, dipped in tea, wrote a few words on the table, “What’s going on here?”

Seeing that, Xu Ziyan could not help but laugh. Although they could not see each other now, using that method gave them the possibility to communicate.

In that weird place, the more people, the more help they had. As long as they could communicate, they could at least compare the information they gathered.

Xu Ziyan was could speak, so he quickly told what he and Xu Zirong had discovered. Tianle also used the tea on the table to communicate with them about the news he had gathered.

After summarizing the information obtained by the two parties, the three keywords “Ghost Deity Festival” was highlighted.

“In three days, it will be the Ghost Deity Festival. I think that should be an opportunity for us to leave here, but our current information is not complete, so it’s best to collect more.” He said to Tianle, “Tomorrow during the day, go walk around. You must focus on inquiring some news about this Ghost Deity Festival. I have a feeling that it isn’t so simple. Also…” Xu Ziyan suddenly thought of something, and hurriedly continued, “Go to the pier tomorrow and check it out. Although these people are transformed to monsters at night, they still continue their daytime life. Just now, I heard them downstairs saying that a group of new people have arrived. Since they are new, they must not be the original residents of this town. Go and find more about them.”

Tianle nodded, and then realized that the other party could not see him, so he wrote on the table to show that he understood.

After contemplating on the information that they obtained, Xu Ziyan found no further analysis to be done, so he sent Tianle away. After an afternoon of such events, he, who was currently an ordinary mortal, felt a little tired.

Fortunately, Xu Zirong had previously prepared some defensive formations that could be activated with spiritual stones. Otherwise, in such a ghostly place, Xu Ziyan would be really worried about falling asleep and never waking up again.

It was a good night’s sleep.

Early the next morning, Xu Ziyan once again became the ‘invisible person’.

He took Xu Zirong to explore around, but mainly focused on the square where Ghost Deity Festival was about to take place.

The square was located in the center of the small town (small street), very close to the inn. It was only a few minutes’ walk away. However, for some reason, the square was extremely deserted. Even if people passed by, they just hurriedly left. No one dared to stay there at all.

There was a big tree in the center of the square, which looked old. Under the tree was an altar made of stones. It was not too big, but it was enough to hold a person lying flat on it.