Ita Era

Chapter 131 Entrance to the Secret Passage
In the mourning hall of the east courtyard, the flickering candlelight was the brightest star in the Wang residence.

Some candles have burned down to the bottom, but that's alright, there are plenty of candles and incense on the altar.

"Go light the candles, I'll close the door."

Ding Shi instructed them to close the main gate of the east courtyard and lower the wooden gate. Given the gate's sturdiness, the corpse wouldn't be able to breach this defense for a while. The east courtyard had a geographical advantage: it had no side doors or back doors; apart from the dog hole, the only way in and out was through the main gate.

Cao Ying was very efficient; she spread the candles out and lit them, increasing visibility throughout the east courtyard: "Ding Shi, what are your thoughts?"

Ding Shi asked, "Are you referring to my idea of ​​cutting off your finger? Or are you referring to what we should do next?"

Faced with Ding Shi's probing of her temperament, Cao Ying cursed Ding Shi inwardly for being so difficult to deal with. How come she hadn't noticed before that this man was as cunning as a fishing net?

It's unlikely the two will turn on each other and fight. Ding Shi isn't familiar with Cao Ying, so he immediately started making provocative remarks. Assuming Ding Shi isn't mindless, there's only one possibility: he's testing Cao Ying's limits, figuring out what step he should take to elicit a certain reaction from her.

Does this sound familiar? That's right, this is the most basic tactic used by scumbags to gradually deceive young girls and steal their innocence.

Cao Ying seemed oblivious to the implication and said, "Of course, we'll continue."

"Boring!" Ding Shi said, "Each main courtyard in the backyard has a secret passage leading to the inner ancestral hall. It's 11:30 PM now, and I have a feeling that as the number of players decreases, the evil spirits become stronger. At first, the evil spirits were invisible, then gold ingots and red envelopes appeared. Next, they can attack people in the dark."

Ding Shi said, "Ita won't deny us a way out. The only way out I can think of is the secret passage."

Cao Ying said, "I had a plan before, which was to burn down the ancestral hall."

Ding Shi said, "A stupid plan."

Cao Ying: "I won't be angry. You don't need to say anything hurtful."

Ding Shi chuckled, washed his hands, took out the leftover rice, shaped it into two rice balls, and handed one to Cao Ying. Cao Ying knew this was another test, but she accepted the rice ball without any disgust, sat on the bench next to Ding Shi, and ate the rice ball bite by bite: "Thank you."

Ding Shi: "You probably haven't been to the inner ancestral hall, have you? Besides the memorial tablets and prayer cushions, there aren't many flammable materials inside. The main structure of the inner ancestral hall is supported by stone pillars. A fire won't destroy the main structure of the inner ancestral hall. Once you start a fire, we can only stay in the fire, otherwise we will be swallowed by darkness. If we stay by the fire, we might be swallowed by the fire."

Ding Shi: "The most important point: evil spirits can control the wind direction."

Cao Ying asked, "Is the evil spirit controlling Wang Yi now, or is Wang Yi controlling the evil spirit?"

Ding Shi: "Does it matter? The only one we can beat is Wang Yi."

Cao Ying laughed: "You're right. I never expected your thinking to be so direct and simple."

Ding Shi: "I'll take it as a compliment."

Cao Ying: "So your plan is to find the secret passage and kill Wang Yi."

Ding Shi: "Yes."

Cao Ying: "Wang Yi couldn't possibly not know about the secret passage."

Ding Shi: "If I'm not mistaken, Wang Yi will send zombies to guard the secret passage. If all the players outside are killed, their corpses will be controlled and used to guard the secret passage alongside the zombies."

Cao Ying said, "It's not that easy. The players who have survived until now won't die too quickly. Don't rush, eat well before we start working."

Ding Shi retorted, "How do you know I'm anxious?"

Cao Ying smiled: "For a person with strong execution skills, when he has a clear plan, he will be eager to complete it. Unless the plan is limited by time or other conditions."

Ding Shi remained noncommittal.

Cao Ying said, "It's a pity that this is a double-seal dungeon, otherwise we could become friends."

Ding Shi gave a perfunctory reply: "Yes, it's such a pity."

Cao Ying: "Did you run into Wang Meng?"

Ding Shi: "I am from the same tribe as him."

Cao Ying: "Is he a chief?"

Ding Shi: "No, he's past the age of being competitive and aggressive; he's old."

Cao Ying changed the subject and asked, "How many truths do you have?"

Ding Shi looked at Cao Ying for a moment: "Three."

Cao Ying: "Would you like to know the secret behind the truth?"

Ding Shi: "What are the conditions?"

Cao Ying liked intelligent people, and asked, "Why did you kill Jiao Jiao?" Jiao Jiao was her adopted sister, the biological sister of her colleague who died in the line of duty.

Ding Shi said, "I want to sleep with her, but she won't agree. Who am I? I'm the second-in-command of the Dragon Gang, I'm involved in the underworld. Do you think I can tolerate this?"

Cao Ying: "As far as I know, you insulted her to her face, treating her as a very lowly person, and insulted her with actions and words, so she chose to fight back instead of avoiding it."

Ding Shi said, "Hey, I'm from a triad society. If I respect her, wouldn't that be disrespecting my profession?"

Cao Ying said, "But this is just one example. Does that mean you don't respect your profession most of the time? The real world has disappeared, so why can't you tell me the truth?"

Ding Shi said, "I remember you asked the same question after we slept together. But you had ulterior motives, so you didn't pursue it further."

Cao Ying said, "Although you're a scoundrel, I don't regret it. You don't need to provoke me by talking about sleeping with me. Unless you're full of filth and have no sense of propriety at all. I've already set the conditions: if you want to know the truth, tell me the truth."

Ding Shi pondered for a moment and said, "Jiao Jiao is an intelligence agent; in other words, she is a Sword Butterfly."

Cao Ying said, "First question: Do you have any evidence? As far as I know, her mission before she died was to familiarize herself with City A, and she didn't do anything illegal. Second question: Even if she did do something illegal, what does it have to do with you?"

Ding Shi replied: "First question: I don't need evidence. Second question: Have you read The Legend of the Condor Heroes? Those beggars who were starving, bullied, and on the verge of starvation and death from disease, bravely stood up when faced with foreign enemies. If beggars have such awareness, how much more should I? No matter what our status is, we will all stand together against a common enemy."

Cao Ying asked, "How did you know she was a Sword Butterfly?"

Ding Shi said, "That's a different reward. So, what's the secret of the truth?"

Cao Ying stared at Ding Shi quietly for a few seconds, then looked away and said, "Collecting five truths will reveal the whole truth. Once someone knows the whole truth, the Ita World will upgrade."

"upgrade?"

"I don't know what the so-called upgrade is, but based on the information, a platform for communication among all users will appear after the upgrade."

Ding Shi nodded, said nothing more, finished the rice ball in his hand, drank a few sips of water, picked up the lantern and started wandering around the east courtyard.

The east courtyard has an arc-shaped structure. The entrance leads to the courtyard, the main hall is directly in front, the main house is on the left, and the small kitchen and the rooms where the servants live are on the right. To reflect Ita's benevolence, Ita provided each room with a toilet and toilet paper that could only be used in the toilet; no public toilets were built.

There are three wing rooms on each side. As the east courtyard, it is larger than the other courtyards and has a sizable backyard where you can grow flowers and plants.

Ding Shi went around to each room and returned to the main hall and mourning hall, but found nothing.

Cao Ying gulped down half a ladle of water, let out a satisfied burp, and seeing that Ding Shi had no clue, reminded him: "The backyard is divided into eight sections according to the Bagua, namely east, south, west, north, plum blossom, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum."

Ding Shi asked, "Is the middle part of the hair missing?"

Cao Ying nearly choked on her saliva and said, "The eight courtyards correspond to the eight gates. The East Courtyard corresponds to Zhen, which corresponds to the wood element in the Five Elements."

Ding Shi: "And then?"

Cao Ying: "That's all. The above is all the knowledge I know about the Eight Trigrams and Five Elements."

Ding Shi: "I thought you were so capable."

Cao Ying: "It's better than you being ignorant."

Ding Shi gave her a disdainful smile and began pacing back and forth in front of the main room. Cao Ying noticed that Ding Shi wasn't thinking about the problem, but rather measuring with his steps. She was immediately startled: Had he discovered something? A strange competitive spirit arose within her, and she stopped lying there, picked up a lantern, and began searching for clues.

Ding Shi walked to the back of the main hall. There was a passageway about 1.5 meters wide. To the left was a door blocking the way to the back door of the main house, and to the right were the servants' room and the small kitchen.

Ding Shi walked back to the main room and sat down.

The bamboo courtyard originally housed seven people, plus two servants, so the space per person wasn't large. Given the players' strong desire for exploration, it was strange that no one discovered the secret passage.

All seven courtyards are inhabited, yet no one has discovered the secret passage. Either the dozens of players were incredibly unlucky, the secret passage doesn't exist, or it's in a place no player would ever discover.

After much thought, it seemed the only place the player hadn't visited was the servant's room. The East Courtyard differed from the other courtyards, having a small kitchen. Ding Shi spent ten minutes carefully checking both the small kitchen and the servant's room, but still found nothing.

Ding Shi returned to the main room, and Cao Ying also returned to the main room. She sat on a chair and stared blankly at the coffin in the middle of the main room, as if she was thinking about something.

"Not good," Ding Shi said. "Look."

Ding Shi pointed to the candle on the table. Cao Ying looked at it for a while, puzzled. Ding Shi said, "The candle flame is slowly increasing, and the candle is decreasing at a visible rate." Cao Ying stared blankly at the coffin, while Ding Shi looked at the candle, lost in thought. As he looked, he realized something was wrong.

Cao Ying observed for a moment and said, "It seems so. What does this mean?"

Ding Shi said, "This means the burning speed will get faster and faster." He turned to look at the gate, which was originally at the edge of the light, but was now faintly visible.

Ding Shi said, "Darkness is encroaching."

Cao Ying disagreed: "Darkness is no substitute for a breeze; it can blow out the candle directly."

The air seemed to freeze for a few seconds, then a strong wind blew, causing the candlelight to flicker.

"Cao Wuya, you damn traitor!" Ding Shi hurriedly gathered the lanterns, grabbing the three lanterns together, while half of the candles in the main room were blown out.

Cao Ying only got one lantern, quickly moved closer to Ding Shi, and the remaining half of the candle went out.

One lantern illuminates an area with a radius of 3 meters. What area do four lanterns illuminate? Logically, it should be 12 meters, but math doesn't work that way; the total distance illuminated by four lanterns is still 3 meters. Does anyone like someone who doesn't follow logic?
A chilling wind blew, and the two felt abandoned by heaven and earth, trapped in absolute darkness, with only the lanterns in their hands offering some protection. Back to back, staring into the darkness, Cao Ying spoke first: "If you have any ideas, speak up quickly."

Ding Shi: "You go first."

Cao Ying: "I suspect the tunnel entrance is beneath the coffin."

Ding Shi: "Reason."

Cao Ying: "There's no reason, but I guess we have to crawl into the tunnel from inside the coffin."

Ding Shi: "Isn't that unlikely?"

Cao Ying: "It is precisely because there is no possibility of a tunnel that there is a possibility of a tunnel."

Ding Shi: "After hearing your words, I want to slap you."

Cao Ying: "What about you? What are your thoughts?"

Ding Shi pressed down on the lanterns with his left hand to prevent them from swaying in the wind, and said, "Among the eight courtyards, there is only one place that all eight courtyards have, and it is a place that players are unlikely to go to."

Cao Ying asked, "Where?"

Ding Shi replied, "Well."

Cao Ying said, "Do you know what you're saying? It's late autumn, the well is full of water, and now it's pitch black. This is a ghost instance."

Ding put down his canvas bag, took off his jacket and suit, took off his vest, leaving only a shirt, then put the canvas bag back on and walked towards the well.

Cao Ying said urgently, "Let's discuss this first, don't rush to jump into the well." As soon as Ding Shi left, her lantern seemed utterly helpless and could only follow him.

Cao Ying said, "We are in the dark, and we will be attacked by things that don't exist."

Ding Shi placed a lantern by the well. The well was still pitch black, and he instinctively felt that if he jumped in, he would be snatched away by a ghostly hand.

When Cao Ying saw Ding Shi inspecting the several boxes of matches wrapped in layers of oiled paper, confirming his determination to jump into the well, she asked, "Aren't you going to reconsider? Life is precious, the future is promising, and we have other options."

Ding Shi finally paid attention to her and asked, "What's the plan?"

Cao Ying thought for a while: "For example, arson. Although it may not work, we can start burning first and maybe burn out a secret passage entrance."

Ding Shi considered the feasibility, but when he looked up, he saw flames shooting into the sky not far away. Ding Shi asked in surprise, "Did you do this?"

Cao Ying denied it: "I don't have the ability to be in two places at once."

The two looked towards the north courtyard. The wind howled, sparks flew, and soon the south courtyard next to the east courtyard was set ablaze. The firelight illuminated the entire backyard.

Twenty minutes later, the Plum Garden and Chrysanthemum Garden caught fire, and players cried out, "Help! Help!"

The wind suddenly changed direction, acting like a blower, blowing all the sparks and flames towards the east courtyard. Soon, several places in the east courtyard began to burn. Quickly, the fire reached a point where it could not be contained by human power.

Ding Shi looked towards the North Courtyard, where the fire had started earliest; it was now completely dark. Looking into the dark well, he saw the firelight reflected in the water, and he could vaguely see a hole in the well wall about 2 meters deep, facing west.

Setting the fire was the right thing to do; without the sacrifices in the courtyard, the well couldn't be lit. The opportunity was in that instant. Once the fire in the east courtyard subsided, without the help of the firelight, entering the dark well would surely mean certain death.

Cao Ying heard a splash, and when she turned around, Ding Shi was gone. Three lanterns lay on the ground. Cao Ying rushed to the well, but before she could look inside, a pillar fell and hurtled towards her. Cao Ying stopped. After the pillar fell, the fire was noticeably weaker. She stepped over the pillar and looked into the well, but Ding Shi was nowhere to be seen. Because the firelight had dimmed, she couldn't find the entrance to the well.

However, Cao Ying realized that once the East Courtyard burned down, she would have no chance and would soon be swallowed by darkness.

Thinking of this, Cao Ying took off her coat, stood on the edge of the well, and said resentfully, "If you trust a man, you'll be digging for wild vegetables your whole life." Then she pinched her nose and jumped in.

(End of this chapter)