Why is my journey to the world of anime a strange tale of rules?

The rules governing the actions of these paper-figure monsters have undergone significant changes, resulting in many differences from their initial state. However, considering that the obsessions arising in Liu Family Village are all from monsters possessing a certain level of cognitive ability, if the paper figures' questions and answers possess some special rule-based effect targeting monsters rather than living people, then answers should certainly be found from these child monsters. In other words, this questioning is actually a screening process, a process of identifying specific monsters and binding them.

The old man who could design something like this is truly terrifying. Unfortunately, compared to the anthropomorphic creatures in this village, one old Taoist priest is far from enough.

The core information about Yingti Village itself isn't extensive, since the children who are the source of its obsession were born hundreds of years ago, when the village had already been established and operating. They don't have a deep memory of earlier events, having only heard stories from the elders. Therefore, Gao Hai couldn't trace back too far into history through this strange object, but even so, he could still ascertain a lot of useful information.

For example, in the earliest Yingti Village, the villagers of the Li, Liu, and Zhang families all worshipped the Fox Goddess.

Before the jet-black stone formed by the power of the Little Black Mountain God was dug out of the Ghost Cry Cave, the Li and Zhang families, along with the Liu family, worshipped the Fox Goddess. Whether this faith was genuine or not, at least on the surface, all three families recognized only this one deity.

However, worshipping the Fox Goddess didn't necessarily mean maintaining good relations with the Liu family. In fact, only the Zhang family maintained a relatively harmonious relationship with the Liu family, and the two families would occasionally hold joint sacrificial ceremonies. The Li family, on the other hand, was always at odds with the Liu family, and the key reason for this discord was something children couldn't understand, while adults simply said that the Li family had many members, and that these ungrateful wretches wanted to be the boss, believing that neither the Liu nor the Zhang family could be above them.

In response, the Li family villagers modified the sacrificial ritual, claiming that they were the true believers of the Fox Goddess and that the Liu family were merely imitators. This led to several bloody battles between the two families, resulting in dozens of deaths and injuries.

The earliest sacrifice was not from the Liu family, but from the Li family.

The Li family's blood sacrifice practice seems to have existed long before they decided to worship the Fox Goddess. It appears to have originated from the Li family's time as bandits, a custom of killing and sacrificing that was inherited from that period.

After settling in Xiaoheishan, the largest and most powerful of the three families, they initially abandoned this practice for a time. However, for some reason, they gradually revived it, restarting this cruel custom. The earliest sacrificial ritual involved the women and children who were sunk into the "Water Ghost Lake." According to them, the women were offerings to pray for a bountiful harvest, while the children were gifts for the Fox Goddess, as the goddess loved children most.

This led to a fierce conflict between the Liu family and the Li family. However, being outnumbered, the Liu family was unable to gain the upper hand against the Li family. Meanwhile, the Zhang family remained neutral, frequently trying to reconcile the two sides without actually supporting either side. As a result, the Liu family fell into a disadvantageous position and gradually became unable to prevent such incidents from happening.

Some elders of the Liu family said that the Li family changed their initial fear of the deity because they realized that the Fox Goddess's interference in the villagers was not strong. They believed that the Li family remained hostile and unwilling to coexist peacefully with the other two families. They wanted to take this opportunity to change the rules of the sacrifice, claim that they were the rightful heirs, and thus suppress the Liu and Zhang families, trying to turn them into vassals of the Li family.

The elders also said that the Li family's actions might not be reckless; there was likely someone behind them guiding them and teaching them how to do things.

These messages were difficult for the children to understand. All they knew was that the atmosphere in the village was becoming increasingly tense, and the conflicts among the adults were increasing. The Li family villagers were also becoming more and more tyrannical and vicious.

Later, the Li family suddenly announced that they wanted to change their faith and worship the deity "Little Black Mountain God".

Later, in an even bigger conflict, the Zhang family patriarch stated that the Zhang family would worship both the Fox Goddess and the Mountain God of Xiaoheishan, and that they would never intervene in the conflict between the Li and Liu families. He also hoped that everyone could talk things out and discuss things properly.

Then, some adults began to change, becoming different from before.

The Li family can do the sacrificial offering, so the Liu family can certainly do it too.

Ha, all that trouble they go through is for the power of the gods, to gain eternal life, isn't it?

We are the true believers of the Fox Queen, and the only people she truly protects are us, the Liu family.

Since the Li family wants to fight the Liu family to the end and wipe out the entire Liu family, then we can no longer be polite to these ingrates.

They've taken over the Ghost Lake, so we'll use the bottomless lake in the woods. We'll offer sacrifices too, we'll pray to the Goddess, and she'll surely respond!

The initial sacrifices were merely clandestine acts by some adults, which the clan chief sternly reprimanded, and personally enforced the law by having these adults beaten to death with sticks.

However, more and more sacrifices subsequently appeared.

It's like a shift in some kind of mindset.

Or rather, something that only appears on a spiritual level, like a contagious disease, has begun to spread among adults.

Bloody sacrifices began to become more and more frequent.

More and more people were being sunk into the lake, killed, even chopped up, torn apart, and made into so-called "delicious meals."

The children, bewildered, were led by the adults into one dark room after another, and into the icy lake.

But were there originally so many people in this village?

[Your Majesty, Your Majesty, please bless us!]

The devout prayers continued.

Please bless us with good weather, abundant harvests, and freedom from illness and disaster this year.

Please bless our fields with a bountiful harvest this year, and bless us to get through this year safely.

Please bless our grandchildren...slurp...hehehe...please bless them to be delicious and unforgettable...

In the increasingly distorted prayers, the gentle god sat on the high platform, gently chewing on the flesh and blood of the believers.

The devout people knelt on the ground, surrounded by their mutilated, mangled children.

The madness spread like a plague.

Nobody knows exactly what happened.

The innocent children couldn't discern where this twisted origin came from, or who had started it all. Even though they knew the adults had changed—the Liu and Li families were becoming increasingly different from before, and the Zhang family had vanished without a trace—they were powerless to make any changes, powerless to stop this bloody revelry from spreading further.

All they knew was that the adults who were supposed to protect them had become something else—strange, cruel, and terrifying.

They could only become lambs at this feast, forced to endure unimaginable suffering, and walk into darkness in endless despair.

And this accumulated pain will become the beginning of a new distortion.

What a pitiful child... I never imagined that such a horrific tragedy could occur so deep in this desolate forest.

A figure draped in a Taoist robe slowly emerged, sighing softly.

Since I have been brought here by fate, I cannot turn a blind eye.

If this twisted resentment is not guided and cannot be put to rest, it will inevitably cause extremely terrible disasters; we must find a way to deal with it.

[Hmm, these villagers... although they're clearly severely distorted, they're not completely unable to communicate yet. Let's try to make contact first. Everyone, don't let your guard down. This is the first time we've encountered a distortion affecting more than a thousand people; we absolutely cannot be careless.]

The old man in the Taoist robe solemnly admonished them, then stepped forward and walked towards the bewildered and wandering children.

There is no need to recount what happened after that.

Having sensed these distorted and fragmented memories, Gao Hai opened his eyes, let out a soft sigh, and stretched his body a few times.

The burden of empathizing with two core obsessions at the Red Moon level in a short period of time is still quite heavy.

If he could, Gao Hai really wanted to take a nap right now. He estimated that he would need to sleep for half an hour to relieve his depleted mental energy and return to his peak condition.

Of course, considering the terrifying thing that can find him through dreams, Gao Hai definitely wouldn't dare to actually sleep in this dungeon. You see, in his third playthrough, it was precisely because he took a nap that he had the seed of the crimson vine planted on him, which then summoned a blood flower that relentlessly pursued him.

Have you found the key information?

Zhenfei, who had been standing guard beside Gao Hai, saw him open his eyes and asked him through the mental link.

{No direct information was found regarding the core artifact, but its general whereabouts can be determined. Hmm... it's either at the [Bottomless Lake], or in the hands of the Fox Queen, or the knocking ghost... no, that's unlikely, because it's already been touched. Whether it possesses the core artifact or not is obvious at a glance. So... it might also be with the night watchman? After all, it's related to "that thing." Anyway, these are roughly the possibilities.}

As Gao Hai said this, he looked down at the blood painting he had drawn and realized that what he had drawn was a longevity lock.

For these children who harbor resentment and obsession with each other, is this the only thing they can entrust their obsessions to?

Gao Hai didn't comment on this. He just recalled the scenes he had seen before and suddenly realized that there seemed to be something he had overlooked.

In the fragment of the shared obsession, the last scene only showed the old Taoist priest leading his disciples to try to contact the strange creature and devise a plan to appease and seal it away.

However, the true fate of the Liu family was to be completely corrupted by the power of the blood-red flowers, to the point that the entire village disappeared from the real world and became a twisted world covered by blood-red vines.

Some information is missing from this.

The seal of the Blood Flower was broken hundreds of years ago, devouring the entire Liu family, and then resealed. Gao Hai was completely unable to find any information about this strange creature.

In other words, the blood flower went out of control after the old Taoist priest Ge Yuan successfully sealed the child-like monster. Before that, there were no warning signs whatsoever, is that right?

While he was thinking, Gao Hai had already shared the information he had perceived with his teammates through a temporary mental link, and then walked towards the outside.

Chapter 118: Kaguya's Anxiety and the Player with a Secret

【Bottomless Lake】is located deep in the forest of Xiaoheishan Mountain, and is the final confluence of one of the branches of a river formed from the melting snow on the mountain.

Unlike the Ghost Lake, the Bottomless Lake is located deep in the forest, making it easy to encounter animals like wild boars and bears, so villagers rarely come here to fetch water. After the villagers came into contact with the power of the gods and underwent changes, the animals also gradually began to show abnormal changes, so no one came here anymore.

At least the information from Li Family Village points in this direction. However, considering the large number of infant corpses and strange creatures the Fishing Gang encountered while investigating the Bottomless Lake, this explanation clearly doesn't hold water. So, if the Li family didn't come to the Bottomless Lake much, who was performing the sacrifices here? This question has finally been answered: the Liu family has been using this lake for sacrifices, and all the children are ultimately thrown into it, whether offered directly to the Fox Queen or leftovers after being made into a "delicious meal."

If the core object of my obsession is a longevity lock... it might sink into the lake along with it, meaning I'd have to go down into the lake again. Speaking of which, this lake is called the Bottomless Lake. Could it be one of those places where if you don't go down the right way, it's endless and you'll never reach the bottom?

However, considering the main object of the sacrifice was the Fox Queen, it's possible that she might have swallowed the person along with the longevity lock? Hmm, why does that sound like a hellish joke? But if the Fox Queen really did get it, given the difference between a god and a monster, it's hard to say whether that thing could become an object of obsession. Hmm, let's cross that off for now; it's unlikely.

Another possibility is the Night Watchman. Gao Hai suspects he might possess it because he's the only one connected to the Blood Flower that hasn't been sealed away and is roaming freely. But if it really is him, it would be the worst-case scenario. The Night Watchman has been completely corrupted by the Blood Flower; any player other than Gao Hai himself would die upon seeing him. He would summon the Blood Flower that transforms into Rainbow Summer's Apron upon seeing the Night Watchman, making any contact with him a certain death.

In short, go to the Bottomless Lake first. If you can't find the Bottomless Lake, keep this core object as a last resort and consider it again after you've found the other three.

In Liu Family Village, which had been completely turned into a paper village, Gao Hai, after a brief period of thought and judgment, roughly determined the direction of his next move.

Should we head to the bottomless lake in this hidden space, or go back to the bottomless lake in the Li Family Village area to investigate?

Cat Brother, who had overheard Gao Hai's analysis, offered his opinion.

{I think we should consider the bottomless lake in this hidden space first. Firstly, according to Haijun, there are already serious hidden dangers in Lijia Village, and it would be difficult to handle if something happened there. Secondly, since the core obsession created by Liujia Village and its villagers was also hidden, making it impossible to find any trace in the surface space, then the corresponding obsession object should also be in this space.}

Before Tangyuan could express her thoughts, Zhenfei spoke first, sharing her ideas in the temporary mental link.

Tangyuan, whose opinion had clearly been voiced beforehand, simply shrugged and said, "Me too," before falling silent.

{So, that establishes a basic direction for our actions. Let's go see what other incredible things this hidden space holds. Whether it's a massive, labyrinthine underground cemetery filled with endless mazes, a shard of glass guarded by elite monsters, or the insanely powerful Night Mithril, I'm prepared to face it all.}

Gao Hai smiled confidently and walked at the front of the group towards the dense forest outside the village.

Although he admitted that he was helpless when facing the crimson flowers, Gao Hai had regained some confidence in the face of these Crimson Moon-level monsters, and his mindset was relatively stable at the moment.

Meanwhile, in another hidden space that he wasn't paying particular attention to, people were also having a conversation.

Gao Jun has confirmed the third core obsession: a collection of child-shaped monsters created through sacrificial rituals by the hidden villagers of Liu Family Village. Although they haven't yet obtained the core obsession object, they have already begun searching for its location.

In a small room, Kaguya sat upright and spoke to the other people in the room through a mental link.

So, Kaguya, what are you thinking about?

Chika blinked and looked at Kaguya with some curiosity, asking her a question.

The wedding dress and coffin artifacts correspond to the weddings and funerals that the Li family originally controlled; these two core obsessions linger in the surface space. Conversely, they can also be controlled by the villagers of Li Family Village. The child artifact is related to the vanished Liu Family Village, therefore it disappeared and was hidden along with the village.

I think the fourth core obsession is related to Zhangjia Village, the family that attempted to worship two gods simultaneously. Their demise might be related to this fourth core obsession. And Gao Jun said that traces of Zhangjia Village can be found in the surface space.

{Although it was an untouchable village, like a phantom, the fact that it could be found already speaks volumes. Therefore, my thought is that to find the fourth core obsession, we probably need to return to the surface space. Or more accurately, both the second and fourth core obsessions need to be found by returning to the surface!}

Kaguya closed her eyes and spoke quickly after a brief pause.

{Hmm, that does sound like it, but things have likely changed in the surface space. Ah Hai's intuition is always accurate; since he suspects that terrifying thing might already be in the surface space, going there would be extremely dangerous. With our current abilities, if we encounter any problems, we'd likely have a hard time escaping.}

Chika nodded slightly, but then frowned and offered her own thoughts.

She was well aware of her friend's plans, and Kaguya became somewhat anxious after Miko and Hayasaka disappeared one after the other. Although she had grown up and was no longer flustered by Hayasaka's temporary disappearance, she was still a little anxious and eager to speed things up and take the initiative to do something.

In other words, Kaguya wanted to explore the area around Takami while simultaneously forming a small team to investigate the situation on the other side. She aimed to achieve her goals more quickly and meet the conditions as soon as possible by splitting up her operations.

“The surface space also contains multiple layers of different spaces, and I think it is still necessary to explore this.”

Kaguya spoke slowly, this time not through the mental link, but by speaking aloud.