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

"Let me modify it." Wen Zhaoye began to take tools out of his backpack.

Huo Yunzhi tilted her head with interest: "You know about this too?"

"I know a little."

Wen Zhaoye disassembled the flamethrower and, along with other parts he took out of his backpack, assembled it into a gold-melting spray gun with a clattering sound.

After doing all this, he once again aimed the gun at the paper boat.

This time, the part of the paper boat that came into contact with the flames caught fire as expected, but the speed was much slower than when burning paper.

"Just wait patiently."

Wen Zhaoye was the first to sit down, and the others sat in a row around the burning fire.

Because the gold melting spray gun was assembled temporarily, it could not support long-term operation.

Fortunately, Shen Chilie brought a lot of flamethrowers.

Wen Zhaoye was making changes on the side, while Huo Yunzhi and the other two took turns burning them, and Su Anning went to find gongs, drums and firecrackers.

As a result, the paper boat alone burned for an hour, and the ink line burned for a full two hours.

Shen Chilie grew increasingly speechless as the fire burned: "Is this some kind of divine procession or alchemy?!"

"I've heard that the preparations for the procession are quite complicated, let's hang in there a little longer."

Looking at the dwindling time, Wen Zhaoye frowned deeply: "That axe will probably take three hours to burn, so we'll have to come back in the next round."

"Well, thankfully I circled the entire old house and finally found the gongs, drums, and firecrackers." Su Anning returned, panting, carrying the two items.

"Take a rest," Xu Xiu said, helping Su Anning sit down. "I'll help you recover."

A few minutes later, the familiar voice rang out again.

[Current instance time remaining: 00:00:00]

[Mission failed. The old house will be reset soon.]

"Clang, clang, clang—"

Three long, drawn-out chimes rang out from deep within the courtyard, and the familiar white light appeared once again.

In the blink of an eye, the four of them returned to the preparation area at the entrance of the old house.

Welcome to the Qiao Family Residence.

The task requirements remained unchanged, but the sense of unease about the passenger and freight transport became increasingly intense.

"Only the axe is left, let's hurry." Shen Chilie was the first to run into the old house.

"etc!"

"Wait a moment!"

Huo Yunzhi and Wen Zhaoye spoke almost simultaneously, stopping Shen Chilie from stepping into the old house.

Shen Chilie turned around in confusion: "You two... what's wrong?"

Wen Zhaoye and Huo Yunzhi exchanged a quick glance, and then saw a sudden realization in each other's eyes.

"Something's not right with the old house." Huo Yunzhi cautiously looked at the old house's gate. "Ever since the second reset, I've had a strange sense of unease. I feel like something's missing, but I can't quite put my finger on it."

Even now, Huo Yunzhi can't remember exactly where those feelings of unease came from.

She scrolled through the group chat, found the previously posted photo of the palanquin, and then clicked on the introduction to the ancient house instance.

"Look, the limit for the number of people in the profile is four, so our group chat is also limited to four people."

"That's not a problem." Xu Xiu didn't understand Huo Yunzhi's meaning.

"But did only four of us really come in?"

Pointing to a photo of the palanquin, she said, "Look, the four of us could lift this palanquin, but we also have to support the incense burner, gongs, drums, and firecrackers. Is that a reasonable number of people?"

Shen Chilie's face turned ugly.

Indeed, whether from the perspective of the task requirements or the difficulty of the dungeon, this dungeon is not something that four people can complete.

He couldn't help but mutter to himself, "So... someone's been hidden?"

"They may have dealt with the vengeful spirit alone, or they may have sacrificed themselves to obtain the items; in any case, there's a problem with our numbers."

Xu Xiu also figured out the key point.

But the truth of all this vanished with each reset.

Shen Chilie gritted his teeth and slammed his fist against the wall: "Can you tell me the exact number of people?"

Huo Yunzhi remained silent for a while: "Have you noticed that the number of chimes increases every time the clock is reset? Last time it chimed three times."

"That means three people disappeared." Shen Chilie also recalled the bell he had heard earlier: "Otherwise, it would be a waste of resources to just indicate the reset round. So... seven of us came in."

Huo Yunzhi nodded.

Wen Zhaoye immediately compiled his conclusions and sent them to the group.

"Let's take this information as a starting point. If we only have three people left in the next round, we can be completely certain that we are losing teammates every round."

To prevent me from being the next one to disappear, you all need to copy this sentence and send it to the group.

"Can those who disappeared... ever come back?" Xu Xiu murmured.

"I just hope this forgetting effect works like the vengeful ghost mechanism, so that if we find the vengeful ghost and administer the liquid, we'll have a chance to bring the rest of the people back."

"We've practically plowed up the entire old house, but we haven't seen any more ghosts."

"No." Huo Yunzhi stared intently at the gate of the old house: "There's still one place we haven't found."

"where?"

"Where the bells rang, did you see anything that looked like a bell in the old house just now?"

Shen Chilie shook his head honestly.

"Then I do have a way to possibly find the source of the bell's sound." Wen Zhaoye pushed up his glasses, his eyes brightening with excitement: "That is to become the one who has been forgotten, whose existence has been erased. But before that, we must burn that axe in this round."

He stepped into the old house.

The fourth round of challenges at the Qiao Family Mansion has officially begun.

Just as Wen Zhaoye had worried in the previous round, the number of clones remained unchanged, but their activity range expanded again, covering almost half of the map.

Wen Zhaoye opened the map, marked a point at the current location, and drew a circle with the location of the copy as the center.

Huo Yunzhi immediately frowned: "The Qiao Clan Ancestral Hall is also within the scope of the replica's activities."

"As expected, we'll take this route." Wen Zhaoye pointed to a small path marked on the map: "We can avoid contact with the replica before reaching the ancestral hall."

"This road is much longer than the previous one." Shen Chilie frowned as well. "It will take us much less time to get to the ancestral hall."

"There's nothing we can do about that." Xu Xiu took out a white jade bottle: "Everyone, use any speed-up skills or items you have. I'll buff you from behind."

With Xu Xiu's support, the group finally arrived at the ancestral hall half an hour later.

The moment they stepped into the ancestral hall, two sharp whistles rang out in the distance, and the red dots on the map moved rapidly, indicating that the clones were rushing towards their location.

"I'll stop them."

Shen Chilie stood firmly at the gate, turning his head slightly to look at Huo Yunzhi: "You protect them both."

As he spoke, golden light appeared on the ground, and when the light faded, only weapons remained scattered on the ground.

With the weapons on the mountain and Shen Chilie, they exuded an aura of invincibility, like one man holding off ten thousand.

Huo Yunzhi stepped around the weapons and walked to Shen Chilie's side, where the Karmic Fire Red Lotus Golden Brick and the safe zone poured out.

"Human strength has its limits, but vengeful spirits do not." She smiled slightly and tilted her head: "I'll stay with you."