Chapter 12 Not the Time to Act Smart

"That's right." Xu Tuoan said, "I discovered Ao Yong, who was sneaking into the main control room, and possessed his body, gaining access to the so-called player privileges.

"A slaughter game, is it? I instantly understood the ambiguous and unspeakable 'secrets' and 'prophecies' recorded within the *Tan Hua* organization.

"I don't want to re-enter the cycle of reincarnation, nor do I want to be a wandering ghost. I want to escape from here and become a living person, preferably a player in the slaughter game if possible."

"So, you set your sights on us."

Xu Tuoan nodded, "The Zhuxie Formation (evil-exterminating formation) and the Juyin Formation (yin-gathering formation) have similar structures. The Zhuxie Formation requires six talismans, while the Juyin Formation requires five.

"Simply removing one talisman and adding another can transform the Zhuxie Formation into a Juyin Formation.

"Removing a talisman is naturally easy to implement, but adding a completely new talisman requires a living person to accomplish."

Li Ang shook the yellow paper in his hand, "The yellow paper you gave the Plague Doctor should be that new talisman belonging to the Juyin Formation, right?"

"Yes." Xu Tuoan sighed, pointing to the suit-clad vengeful spirit, and said, "The talisman you drew on the fifth floor was exactly the one that needed to be removed.

"So I had him follow the photo you sent to the group, go to the bottom of the Nine-Rank Crab Roe Bun shop sign, and dig out the floor where the yellow paper was.

"Touching the talisman would cause great damage to the Yin spirit, triggering an explosion, but it was insignificant compared to our gains after the plan was completed."

Li Ang casually asked in a declarative tone, "You were planning to complete the Juyin Formation, absorb the Yin evil *qi*, and then seize our bodies—mine, Wu Dai's, and the Plague Doctor's, right?"

"That's right." Xu Tuoan laughed, "The task I received as a ghost was to complete the drawing of five Juyin Formation talismans, which would be considered completion of the task.

"Five ghosts, five bodies, five brand-new lives belonging to players. That's the system's hint, isn't it?

"Restricted by the system, the other four vengeful spirits could only track you through sound and light, but with me, who is both a player and a ghost, tracking and locating you is as easy as having an open map.

"All along, we have been acting with you, chasing you, putting pressure on you, so that you could draw four talismans that are common to both the Zhuxie Formation and the Juyin Formation.

"As for the fifth decisive Juyin Formation talisman, I was planning to trick you into drawing it.

"Unfortunately, you are too smart, so smart that you don't know when to play dumb. If you had discovered my anomaly and contacted me privately earlier, I might have let you go, allowing you to draw the fifth talisman in good health and die painlessly.

"Now, I can only break your hands and feet, so you have to bite the cinnabar brush with your mouth and draw it slowly..."

Xu Tuoan exhaled a mouthful of foul air. The magic formation formed by his blood on the ground slowly dissipated, and the several vengeful spirits outside the air barrier slowly approached.

This air barrier set up by Xu Tuoan himself had two purposes: one was to create a sense of oppression, forcing Li Ang and others to draw talismans in critical situations;

The second was to prevent the souls of the Lost Airship from approaching the players, preventing accidents—even though he had no tongue and couldn't speak.

Now that Li Ang had deduced all the truth, the air barrier was no longer necessary, and it was time to end this boring charade.

The vengeful spirits slowly stepped forward, Xu Tuoan laughed wildly, Liu Wu Dai somberly drew his bow to its full extent, while the Plague Doctor's hands hung down naturally, motionless.

Li Ang looked around, watching the approaching vengeful spirits, suddenly smiled, and said to Xu Tuoan, "Look, I found three talismans, the Plague Doctor found one, and Ao Yong, or rather you, found two.

"If all the ones you found were fake, then there are still two talismans hidden in the corners of this shopping mall?"

"That's right," Xu Tuoan tilted his head, two lines of blood tears flowing from his empty eye sockets, "As a ghost, I can't see the talismans directly created by the system, so I haven't found a single one.

"But in order to prevent you from finding these two talismans, I lied in the WeChat group that I had already found them, to prevent you from discovering more yellow paper and realizing that the number was wrong."

"I see."

Li Ang watched the vengeful spirits approach, but he didn't care at all, and said with a smile, "Guess what my backup plan is?"

"I don't know, and it doesn't matter whether I know it or not." Xu Tuoan said gloomily, "Anyway, your body will soon belong to us..."

Before Xu Tuoan could finish speaking, Li Ang's phone began to vibrate, "Buzz buzz."

WeChat new message.

"Wait a moment." Li Ang raised his palm, swiped open the phone screen lock, and showed the phone screen to Xu Tuoan.

On the phone screen was a WeChat chat box, with the chat partner displayed as "Plague Doctor."

"I've finished drawing."

This was the message sent by the Plague Doctor, with the time displayed as 2:38 a.m.

Xu Tuoan glanced at Li Ang, then at the Plague Doctor standing beside Li Ang, and a strong sense of unease suddenly rose in his heart.

Li Ang continued to scroll up the chat box, displaying the earliest chat records.

Plague Doctor: I have passed your friend verification request, and now we can start chatting.

Plague Doctor: Who are you?

Sunshine Sunflower: Li Risheng. Listen, I suspect there are ghosts watching you. You need to stay calm now and pretend that nothing has happened.

Plague Doctor: Okay

Sunshine Sunflower: Can you tell me what happened when you were attacked in the power distribution room?

Plague Doctor: The old vengeful spirit who occupied the body of the Lost Airship kept pulling open the cabinet door, and another engineer ghost without a tongue was also knocking on the cabinet door, but the latter didn't seem to be aggressive, but rather seemed quite anxious.

Sunshine Sunflower: I understand... By the way, Ao Yong is a ghost.

Plague Doctor: What?!

Sunshine Sunflower: If he sends you a private message, send him a photo of your chest with a talisman attached. Ghosts can't see the talisman, he will only wonder why you sent this inexplicable picture. If he doesn't send you a private message, then don't believe anything he says in the group later.

Plague Doctor: ...Okay

Plague Doctor: Ao Yong sent a message in the group asking us to go over, what should I do?

Sunshine Sunflower: You hide first, until there is a lot of noise on the first floor, then you come out, go to the third floor and continue searching, there are still two talismans left that haven't been found. If I guessed correctly, no ghosts will come to find you during the whole process. After finding the talismans, go to the first and second floors as soon as possible to finish drawing, don't hesitate.

Plague Doctor: Okay. Would it seem abnormal if I don't show up on the first floor later? I have an item that can create a fake body.

Name: Substitute Puppet

Type: Consumable

Quality: Rare

Effect: Creates a substitute with the same appearance as the player. The substitute has low-level intelligence and can be remotely controlled. The substitute shares perception with the player. The substitute has 10% of the user's attack power and takes 320% damage. The substitute lasts for 20 minutes.

Equipment Requirements: None

Note: A legendary *da fa* master who travels in the spirit world all year round often uses this item to have in-depth exchanges with his *qingfu* in the real world.

Sunshine Sunflower: Well... okay, you send the substitute to the first floor later, and act according to my instructions.

Plague Doctor: Understood.

Plague Doctor: I found the first talisman and have drawn it.

Plague Doctor: I found the second talisman and have drawn it. Did you hear the task prompt?

Xu Tuoan looked at these chat records, his face horrified, and he roared: "No, you didn't complete the task! I've already had someone destroy the talisman on the fifth floor..."

"I drew an identical pattern a dozen meters away from the pattern of the first talisman. Similarly, I drew two copies of the talismans on the fourth and third floors, just to prevent them from being destroyed by ghosts."

Li Ang counted his fingers and said: "One two three four five six, six talismans have been drawn, now I have heard the system prompt..."

Tracing Talismans 6/6

The script task "Hide and Seek" has been completed

Reward settlement in progress

Xu Tuoan, who was not in the same team as Li Ang, could not hear the system prompt, but this did not prevent him from feeling a strong sense of unease.

He shook his arms frantically, and drew complicated and profound magic formations in the void, "*Tian Di Wu Ji, Qian Kun Jie Fa*..." (天地无极，乾坤借法 - a Taoist incantation, meaning "The universe is boundless, borrow the power of heaven and earth")

Before he could finish speaking, the fully completed Zhuxie Formation (evil-exterminating formation) slowly activated, and the moonlight leaking from the glass dome condensed into a majestic and vast righteous *qi* (浩然正气 - a concept of indomitable spirit and moral integrity in Confucianism), like a long sword, sharply stabbing down.

The ghost loli and the ghost mother who were hugging each other looked up at the moonlight long sword, with unwillingness and loneliness on their faces,

The suit man looked blank, the beggar old man was full of resentment, and the Lost Airship was lost and disappointed,

In the corner of the fourth floor, Ao Yong's soul without eyes and tongue seemed to realize something, and the empty eye sockets looked at the hall, and the painful expression finally calmed down.

Under the moonlight, the ghosts quickly melted away, leaving only Xu Tuoan kneeling on the ground, holding up an unnamed magic formation with both hands to resist the moonlight long sword.

"Aaaaaah!!!"

Xu Tuoan's face was slowly melting, and the severe pain forced him to roar and roar,

"Blast him to death."

Li Ang said lightly.

Liu Wu Dai nodded, unloaded the individual rocket launcher, and pulled the trigger at Xu Tuoan.