absurd deduction game.

Just as those alluring lips were about to touch his, Carlos suddenly raised his hand and gently placed a finger between them.

Fennell stopped moving, a hint of displeasure flashing in her eyes. Her deep gaze locked onto Carlos's smiling face.

Under her gaze, Carlos chuckled softly, his voice even lower and tinged with a hint of mockery: "Madam, don't forget, my companion is still here, and he could come down at any moment. I suppose... you wouldn't want anyone to see you like that, would you?"

Upon hearing this, Fernal slowly removed Carlos's fingers.

Her voice suddenly shifted to the empty doorway, her tone calm: "Martha, close the door. If Mr. Yu Xing comes down... tell him directly what's happening here."

She added with a playful yet confident tone, "I believe Mr. Yu Xing will definitely not choose to bother us."

As soon as Funel finished speaking, the maid Martha appeared silently by the door.

Her face showed no extra expression; she simply bowed slightly in the direction of Fennell and replied, "Yes, Master."

Then, she stepped back, reached out and grasped the heavy oak doorknob, and gently pulled it.

"Click."

With a soft click, the door to the small living room was closed tightly, completely isolating the inside from the outside.

……

In Sarah's bedside room, the illusory tentacle slowly withdrew from between her eyebrows, like the receding tide, and finally disappeared completely behind Yu Xing.

The mental link broke, and Sarah's face showed a brief look of bewilderment, as if she had just escaped from a deep and terrifying dream.

Immediately, the confusion was replaced by a clearer, more profound panic. She subconsciously raised her hand to cover her forehead, her body trembling slightly.

Yu Xing sat quietly on the edge of the bed, processing all the information he had just received. The fragmented images, the despairing emotions, and the filthy atmosphere gradually transformed into a massive whale, slowly swimming beneath the ice layer deep within his pupils.

A moment later, he lowered his eyelids slightly, and when he opened them again, all the strangeness had completely disappeared.

He looked at Sarah's frightened and uneasy expression and spoke, his voice steady yet carrying a strange sense of calm: "Don't worry, I already know everything that happened to you and Professor Anthony. I will record it and never let your suffering be forgotten."

According to Sarah's account, neither she nor Anthony escaped Fernail's clutches.

Sarah was forcibly given a certain drug by Fernell and had a tiny "larva" implanted in her. From then on, her body no longer belonged entirely to her. Like a puppet, she had to act according to Fernell's will. Whenever she tried to tell the truth, an invisible restraint would strangle her.

As for Anthony... Sarah's memory was filled with only the shadow of the huge, writhing pupa that enveloped Anthony's head that night. The ominous feeling brought by that sight was far more terrifying than the fact that she herself was simply being manipulated.

She felt that although Anthony looked the same as her, being manipulated and unable to control his own destiny, the person beneath that skin... might already be different from her.

In short, today's farce of "catching them in the act" was orchestrated by Fernail. Sarah and Anthony, manipulated by Fernail, successfully "invited" Carlos and Yu Xing to the manor according to Fernail's script.

"Do you know what exactly Fennell wants to do after she tricked us into coming here?" Yu Xing asked, even though she already had a guess in her mind.

Sarah shook her head vigorously, her eyes conveying that she was only there to carry out orders, and that Fernail would never let a "puppet" like her know the purpose behind them.

Yu Xing nodded and didn't ask any further questions.

He stood up, ready to leave.

"!"

Sarah suddenly reached out and grabbed Yu Xing's wrist tightly. Her fingers were icy cold, and she gripped the wrist so hard that her knuckles turned white. Her eyes were filled with a desperate plea, and her lips trembled, but she couldn't utter a complete plea due to the restraint.

Yu Xing stopped what she was doing and looked down at her.

He didn't pull away, but gently placed his other hand on the back of her hand, the temperature of which seemed to convey a faint warmth.

“Don’t worry,” his voice wasn’t loud, but it carried a reassuring smile, “At least for the next few days, Fernel won’t easily touch you. I’ll wait until I find an opportunity…”

He paused, his gaze sweeping across the tightly closed door, as if he could see through the wooden planks to the servants watching from outside.

"Once I find a chance to deal with Fernel, I'll remember to take you away from here. Then you can go to the church to lift the curse and regain your freedom."

Sarah stared at him blankly, the panic in her eyes seemingly soothed slightly by his brief words, though the despair remained profound.

Yu Xing gently patted her shoulder, said nothing more, and turned to walk towards the door.

He opened the door, and the maid who had been waiting outside immediately bowed slightly. Her face was expressionless, but she quickly stepped into the room and took over the "care" of Sarah. Her movements were fluid and without any relaxation.

Yu Xing took one last look at the room; Sarah was curled up on the bed, shrouded in shadow.

He closed the door expressionlessly, shutting out the oppressive space behind him.

The corridor was dimly lit, and the air was filled with the manor's unique scent, a mixture of floral fragrance and old wood. Yu Xing walked unhurriedly toward the stairs, but her mind was already racing with calculations.

There is no doubt that Furnar is a cultist.

The scenes glimpsed from Sarah's fragmented memories all indicate that Furnel's abilities have far exceeded the scope of ordinary cultists, and are closer to a terrifying monster that combines blasphemous knowledge with biological mutation.

Yu Xing had already guessed her true identity, and if the guess was correct, then the purpose of Fernail's choice to "invite" the two of them to the manor on the eve of the final ritual of the secret religion was all too obvious—to eliminate the threat in advance and reduce any obstacles after the ritual began the next day.

She deliberately left Carlos in the living room to "keep her company," while allowing him to roam freely throughout the manor... So, her real target for elimination tonight was clearly Carlos.

As Yu Xing's thoughts wandered, he had already walked past a dimly lit corner of a corridor.

Suddenly, a tiny white paper figure, no bigger than a palm, was tumbling along on its two pitifully short paper legs, rushing toward him in a comical yet somewhat urgent manner.

Then, with a leap, he firmly grasped the top of his shoe.

Yu Xing paused slightly, looked down at the little thing struggling to climb on the shoe, raised an eyebrow, bent down, and picked it up with two fingers.

The little paper figure immediately grasped at a straw, loosening its grip on the shoe and instead tightly hugging Yu Xing's fingers. Its paper head tilted back, and Carlos's voice, filled with exaggerated terror, urgently rang in his ear:

"Captain, have you finished investigating your mistress? Hurry to the small living room! Fern is about to do something indecent to your dearest teammate! Come and save me!"

Yu Xing: "..."

"Go ahead and act." Carlos's paper doll confirmed his earlier thought, but he knew immediately that this overly exaggerated, even theatrical, accusation only proved that the little blue-haired boy was still quite adept at it.

but……

Was it seduction?

Did Fernell think this method was the safest, or did she genuinely have that kind of interest in Carlos and want to kill two birds with one stone?

Yu Xing's lips curled into an almost imperceptible smile. She flicked the little paper doll's thin head with her fingertip and replied in a low voice with a hint of teasing, "Oh? Don't you usually love getting close to beautiful women and handsome men? Now that Mrs. Funel has personally invited you, what, you're not satisfied?"

The little paper doll seemed to choke on these words for a moment, then hugged Yu Xing's fingers tightly, its voice filled with strong dissatisfaction and righteous indignation: "Hey, Captain, it's true that I like beautiful women and handsome men, and I like flirting, but that's just because of my aesthetic sense. People like beautiful things; that's human nature!"

"Besides, I just enjoy interacting and chatting with people. I've never overstepped any boundaries. Don't make me sound like some kind of promiscuous person... In short, even if the King of Heaven himself came today, Fennell wouldn't be able to defile my body!"

"Stop talking nonsense, Captain, come and save me!"

Just as the little paper doll was still chattering and begging for help, Yu Xing caught a glimpse of the other end of the corridor. The maid, Martha, seemed to have also spotted him. Her eyes lit up, and she quickly walked towards him.

Ha, so you're testing him so soon.

A knowing glint flashed in Yu Xing's eyes, and then he said to the little paper figure, "You can only go to the Heavenly King himself. To be honest, I can't save you right now."

He curled his lips into a smirk and said quickly in a breathy voice, "So, you'll have to deal with it yourself for now. If you want to protect your body, you'll have to work harder, right? Anyway... the all-powerful magician always has a lot of solutions, doesn't he?"

"What? Wait—you're a human?!" The simple ink-drawn expression on the little paper figure's face instantly turned to shock, and the paper figure stiffened.

However, before it could utter another word, Yu Xing had already deftly taken it off her fingers, casually stuffed it into the pocket of her trench coat, and even patted it lightly to make sure it was completely covered by the fabric.

Almost at the same time, the maid Martha walked up to him, stopped, bowed slightly, and smiled at him.

"Mr. Yu Xing, where have you been? The servants said you just went to visit that... mistress who caused Madam so much heartache?"

Her words were carefully chosen, and her tone was perfectly in line with the respect and propriety of a servant to his master and guest, concealing her inquiries as a concern for Mrs. Funnel's feelings.

Yu Xing stopped and calmly looked at Martha's face, her attitude almost casual: "Yes, I went to take a look."

He even tilted his head slightly, revealing a perfectly timed hint of doubt: "What, is that not allowed? I have some details about Professor Anthony's affair that I'd like to confirm with Miss Sarah again."

Martha looked at her with understanding and nodded slightly: "Of course, sir. Madam specifically instructed that you are free to move around the manor."

She paused, her tone softening as if she were asking casually out of concern: "So...did you hear anything from that mistress...details that the lady might not know?"

"Well," Yu Xing drawled, looking into Martha's eyes, then paused for a couple of seconds.

Martha is Fernail's personal maid, so her question represents Fernail's intention.

If the answer is "yes," Martha will inevitably ask for details, and whatever you make up will likely give you away to Fernal.

If he tells the truth directly, it will reveal that he has a way to break through the restrictions placed on him by Fennell, and it will also increase Sarah's level of deserving of death in Fennell's mind, putting Sarah in an even more dangerous situation.

And if his answer is no...

Yu Xing suddenly laughed: "Of course I heard it, otherwise why would I have stayed in the guest room for so long?"

He looked directly into Martha's eyes and said slowly, "In the version Miss Sarah told me, Mrs. Fernell was the culprit behind everything."

Martha's expression froze for a moment, then she seemed to have heard something utterly absurd and was genuinely amused, her lips curving into a smile that was even more genuine than before, even bordering on suppressed laughter.

“Mr. Yu Xing, you are so frank.” She shook her head slightly, a hint of interest in her voice. “Then, would you believe such a thing?”

She was probably hoping Yu Xing would say no.

Then, they can reach a tacit agreement, treating Sarah's version of the truth as nonsense, burying it in a few casual laughs, and together becoming the murderers who distort black and white.

But Yu Xing's answer was—

"why not?"

Martha's smile deepened.

She seemed a little confused, tilting her head slightly, as if waiting for Yu Xing to continue.

Yu Xing, with his hands in his pockets, strolled to the edge of the corridor and looked down at the hall below. He said, "No matter how you look at it, Sarah's story is more to my liking—monsters, control, horror—that's what makes it worthwhile for my colleagues and I to come here during this special time."

"As for Mrs. Fernell, her version of the story is really unremarkable. Forgive my bluntness, but in a town where so many people have died, a simple affair..."

He scoffed.

"So what if it's the husband of a wealthy businessman's wife, or even the archbishop's affair?"

“The archbishop’s infidelity is a serious matter…” Martha remarked, then coughed lightly. “So, what do you mean?”

Yu Xing turned her head to look at her: "So, Martha, you're a cultist, aren't you?"

Martha didn't say a word, she just smiled.

However, although she did not admit it, her calm demeanor and lack of rebuttal when accused of being a Tantric practitioner essentially constituted an admission.

Yu Xing then continued, "Madame Fernail tricked Carlos and me into coming here, of course not to put on a show for us, she was going to take action. But she didn't guard against me and gave me a lot of freedom, or rather, she only intended to take action against Carlos."

"She sees me as a companion, right?"

Seeing that Martha was not responding like a saw-through gourd, he continued to speak to himself: "There are only three people who know that I am already a fellow traveler of the Secret Cult: Defit, Evan, and the High Priest... well, the High Priest's personal maid might count as the fourth."

"So, she wasn't worried that I would help her colleague escape; in fact, she was certain that I would help her..."

"Leave Carlos in this manor forever." (End of Chapter)