I started on a rocking horse and relied on watching ads to dominate the highway survival charts.

"No way!" Huo Yunzhi's opposition was firm.

Xu Xiu held her hand and comforted her gently, "There's not much time left, let's go. You can revive me again after this round is over."

Huo Yunzhi looked at the scapegoat, which had become exactly like Xu Xiu, and even looked like it was aging.

She gritted her teeth and finally hardened her heart.

"good!"

"Remember not to tell them the truth."

Huo Yunzhi nodded, suppressing the bitterness in her heart, and pulled Wen Zhaoye and Su Anning to the window before jumping out: "Shen Chilie, follow us!"

"Hey hey hey!" Shen Chilie widened his eyes and followed.

Wen Zhaoye opened his eyes in a daze and met the gaze of Su Anning, who was equally bewildered.

It wasn't until they landed safely that the three of them realized what had happened.

"Why did you let us out? Xu Xiu is still inside."

"She came up with a way to deal with the scapegoat, but the medium of the vengeful spirit might resurface, so just in case, we must leave here."

Shen Chilie, puzzled, could only exclaim in admiration, "Amazing! How could you even think of that!"

Su Anning didn't speak, but silently stared at the third floor of the old house.

You received a private message.

【Ruthless Rice Machine】: Is Sister Xiuxiu preparing to exchange her life with the scapegoat?

Huo Yunzhi looked up in surprise and met Su Anning's gaze.

[Bang Bang will give you two punches]: You know that?

Su Anning didn't say anything, but sent a meme of a kitten wiping away tears.

"No matter what, let's get out of here!"

Wen Zhaoye seemed to have thought of something as well. He glanced at the third floor and led Huo Yunzhi and the others out of the scapegoat's mechanism range.

third floor

After seeing from the real-time updated map in the group chat that they had left, Xu Xiu changed into a white coat and took out a sterilization box from her backpack, which was filled with routine surgical instruments.

She picked up a scalpel and held it in her hand, then began to take deep breaths.

"Pfft!"

The scalpel plunged deep into his thigh.

As a doctor, she was very familiar with the distribution of blood vessels in the human body. This knife pierced her own femoral artery, and a large amount of fresh blood gushed out continuously.

"Waaah—" Xu Xiu couldn't help but sob out in pain.

The scapegoat opposite him also lost his balance and swayed a few times before kneeling on the ground, his smile fading considerably.

Xu Xiu's methods were very effective against the vengeful ghost.

Just then, the white jade bottle, which had been bound to Xu Xiu, flew out on its own, and its healing skill was passively triggered to begin healing its master's wounds.

"No, we need to do it faster."

To prevent the speed of injury from falling behind the speed of treatment, Xu Xiu took all the scalpels in one go and quickly plunged them into various vital parts of her body.

Pain surged through her like a tidal wave, and Xu Xiu knelt on the ground, nearly fainting from the pain.

The blood donation soaked through the white coat, creating an eerie "red flower" on the ground.

The scapegoat was also covered in wounds.

At this moment, it could barely maintain its kneeling posture. Its originally smiling face was now filled with terror. While lying on the ground, it raised its other hand, as if to stop Xu Xiu from continuing to harm herself.

It couldn't understand why someone would so ruthlessly end their own life just to kill it.

Xu Xiu silently twitched the corner of her mouth.

Because her lungs were punctured, even breathing has become a luxury for her.

The white jade bottle spun wildly, and the wound, driven by it, desperately tried to heal, showing its strong desire to save its master's life.

However, Xu Xiu kept inserting the scalpel into his vital areas, and no matter how powerful Bai Yuping's healing abilities were, they were only a drop in the ocean.

"Almost...almost there."

Driven by adrenaline, Xu Xiu carefully selected her favorite scalpel, held it up to her eyes for a moment to examine it, and then resolutely plunged it into her heart.

Xu Xiu froze, her eyes glazed over, and then she fell heavily to the ground.

White smoke began to rise from the scapegoat's body. Xu Xiu forced a smile, a smile exactly the same as the one the vengeful ghost had given at the beginning.

"This is... the end for me..."

Her eyelids grew increasingly swollen. Xu Xiu seemed to want to say something, but in the end, she didn't make a sound. Her lips moved slightly before she fell into boundless darkness.

The scapegoat's eyes were filled with despair.

Xu Xiu was extremely ruthless, and the wounds inflicted on the scapegoat were all fatal. Unfortunately, the scapegoat had no substitute paper doll, so it couldn't even guard the body.

There were no other living people nearby, and no one else to take his place, so he could only lie on the ground like a tattered sack.

Its face, which resembled Xu Xiu's, quickly faded, reverting to the pale, corpse-spotted appearance of a vengeful ghost, with more and more white smoke emanating from its body.

This is a sign that the completely corrupted vengeful spirit has vanished.

Scapegoat, die!

-------------

Leaving the old house, Huo Yunzhi and the others headed deep into the Qiao family's old residence, a place that remains shrouded in mystery on the map to this day.

According to their reasoning, the palanquin was located in that place.

"Hurry, there are only a few minutes left!"

Wen Zhaoye quickly memorized the marked locations on the screen: "Even if I don't get the Divine Sedan Chair before this round ends, I must complete this last map!"

Hearing Wen Zhaoye's words, Huo Yunzhi and Shen Chilie exchanged a glance.

Huo Yunzhi ran wildly along the path toward the palanquin.

Shen Chilie stopped following the usual path and instead, golden light surged around him as he silently smashed through one ancient wall after another that blocked his way.

Su Anning also used her whip to hook onto the eaves and walls, leaping and bounding between them, heading towards the location marked by Wen Zhaoye.

[Dungeon Time Remaining: 00:03:14]

When the countdown reached its final three minutes, the map of the entire Qiao family mansion was finally completed, and Huo Yunzhi arrived at the final location.

This is a three-section ancestral hall.

Ruyan is a tall archway-style gate, with stone door piers covered in a patina at the entrance.

An unidentified auspicious beast crouches on the roof ridge with its flying eaves and green tiles. It appears that due to the erosion of time, most of the paint has been peeled off, revealing the dark gray base.

A plaque made of some unknown material hangs diagonally above the door. The words "Qiao Family Ancestral Hall" can be vaguely discerned from the spiderweb-like cracks on the plaque. The red paint on the characters has long since darkened, and at first glance, it looks like dried blood.

The door is flanked by symmetrical reliefs, which took Huo Yunzhi a long time to recognize as unicorns due to their disrepair over the years.

"No trace of the vengeful ghost has been found yet. Let's go in and take a look."

The four people stepped across the threshold and were greeted by a courtyard.

Unlike the previous layout of "Four Waters Returning to the Hall", the courtyard here is relatively spacious, with a covered corridor on both sides of the main pavilion, and the ground is paved with blue bricks, the gaps filled with black moss.

Mixed with moisture from who-knows-where, it made people feel uneasy within just a dozen seconds.