A bizarre and terrifying experience; I messed up the dungeon world.

His face was covered in blood, his left arm was wrapped in a strip of cloth, and he walked with a limp.

"What's wrong with you?" Zhou Lang asked.

Xiong Batian glanced at him, his lips twitching slightly: "Stepped on a landmine."

"What kind of thunder?"

"The fourth floor tile on the east side of the second-floor corridor is movable; stepping on it triggers a mechanism. A pair of scissors flew out and almost chopped my head off." Xiong Batian pointed to his left arm, "I managed to dodge it by blocking it."

Zhou Lang frowned. The east corridor on the second floor—he hadn't been to that area yet.

"What's over there?"

"A locked room. The door isn't locked, but you can't push it open." Xiong Batian leaned against the wall. "I suspect it's the manor owner's room."

"The owner of the manor?"

"Yes." Xiong Batian pulled out a piece of paper. "This is what I found in the library. It's the architectural blueprint of the manor, showing the purpose of all the rooms. The innermost room on the east side of the second floor is marked as the 'master bedroom,' and it's the only one on the entire floor with three locks."

Three locks.

Zhou Lang's mind worked quickly—the basement door had two locks, and he'd already opened the first one. The master bedroom had three locks. The number of locks was proportional to the room's importance.

"Let me see the blueprints."

Xiong Batian hesitated for two seconds before handing it over.

Zhou Lang unfolded the blueprints. The manor had three floors above ground and one floor below. Each floor's rooms were labeled, mostly servants' quarters, guest rooms, and function rooms. But two places were specially marked with red triangles—the basement and the master bedroom on the second floor.

At the bottom of the drawing, there is a line of small print: "The core is located between the underground and the sky."

The ground floor is a basement, and the sky is... an attic?

Zhou Lang glanced at the markings on the third floor of the blueprints. There was only one large room on the third floor, labeled "Sacrificial Hall".

"Have you been to the third floor?" he asked Xiong Batian.

"No. The stairwell on the third floor is blocked off; it's been bricked up."

Zhou Lang nodded and handed the blueprints back to him.

"Shall we talk tonight?" Xiong Batian took the blueprints. "Let's exchange information."

"Can."

Xiong Batian nodded and walked away with a limp.

Zhou Lang returned to the flowerbed to continue working, but his mind was processing the information. This manor had three key locations—the basement, the second-floor master bedroom, and the third-floor shrine. He had already explored the basement, the master bedroom had a trap, and the shrine was sealed off.

The third cypress tree in the garden is likely the key to connecting these locations.

At 5:30 p.m., Zhou Lang packed up his tools. He didn't go straight back to the manor, but instead took a stroll in the garden, deliberately passing by the third cypress tree.

He squatted down, pretending to tie his shoelaces, and pressed his fingers on the ground.

The soil is very loose.

It wasn't the naturally soft kind; it was the kind that had been turned over and covered up. And about ten centimeters below the soil, there was a hard object.

He stood up, dusted off his hands, and walked toward the manor.

The time is not right. We cannot dig today.

The butler was standing at the entrance of the manor, watching him.

Payday is at 7 PM.

Zhou Lang received 500 coins on the third day. He now had 1700 Strange Coins. However, Strange Coins couldn't buy anything good in this instance—the Butler's "Shop" only had a few low-level consumables, and they were ridiculously expensive.

After distributing the salaries, Zhou Lang, the leader of Xiong Ba Tian Chao, gave a wink. The four of them then gathered in Zhao Qiang's room to meet.

Xiong Batian spread the blueprints out on the bed.

"Here's the situation," he said, pointing to the blueprints. "You've already been to the basement, and I've checked the master bedroom on the second floor. The shrine on the third floor is sealed off and we can't go in for the time being."

"There's a booklet in the basement," Zhou Lang said. "It records the experiences of previous players. The booklet mentions that something is buried under the third cypress tree in the garden."

"What is it?"

"I don't know. The person who wrote the booklet said not to dig it up."

Xiong Batian clicked his tongue: "Then we have to dig."

Zhao Qiang raised his hand: "I have a question."

"explain."

Why is it that every time we're told "don't do something," we end up doing it anyway?

A brief silence.

Han Yingying spoke up: "Because if we don't do it, we'll never get out."

Zhao Qiang lowered his hand.

"I'll handle digging up the cypress trees," Zhou Lang said. "We'll make the move tomorrow evening. You guys are responsible for keeping an eye on the butler's movements."

"How do we keep an eye on them?" Zhao Qiang asked.

"It returns to the manor every evening at six o'clock, enters through the main gate, and arrives on the second floor around 6:10. It takes me at least twenty minutes."

Xiong Batian added, "I can make some noise on the second floor to distract them."

"Isn't your arm injured?" Han Yingying glanced at him.

Xiong Batian stretched his left arm and grinned, "I won't die. Besides, the settlement for this manor is due on the fifth day, and today is the third day. If we don't speed things up, we won't have enough time."

The settlement on the fifth day—Zhou Lang had already calculated this information. Each instance has a time limit; if the instance is not cleared within the time limit, everyone will be considered dead.

"Then it's settled," Zhou Lang said. "Tomorrow, everyone will do their own thing, but be sure to coordinate around 6 PM."

After the meeting, Zhou Lang returned to his room.

He took out a spirit-seeing mirror from his inventory and shone it around the room. In the mirror, the four walls were normal, the ceiling was normal, and under the bed—

There is something.

The mirror reflected a human-shaped dark shadow curled up under the bed. It was close to the ground, only a thin layer, like a flattened skin.

Thirty seconds later, the mirror returned to normal.

Zhou Lang crouched down and looked under the bed. There was nothing there.

But the Spirit-Seeing Mirror doesn't lie. The thing is under the bed, just invisible to the naked eye.

He thought for a moment, then took out an oil lamp from his pocket, lit it, and shone it under the bed. The green light shone on it, and the dark shadow shrank back sharply, slipping away along the corner of the wall with lightning speed.

"Um."

Afraid of oil lamps.

Zhou Lang extinguished the oil lamp and noted down the remaining amount—it would last for about fifteen minutes.

That's not enough. We need to be more careful.

He put away the oil lamp and climbed into bed.

There was something new under the pillow.

A piece of paper, folded twice, yellowed, with traces of insect damage on the edges.

Zhou Lang opened the note.

"You're the new gardener, aren't you? I died before you arrived. The bed you're sleeping in now is mine. If you see the booklet in the basement, please do me a favor—dig up what's under the third cypress tree and bring it to the shrine on the third floor. But be careful, don't look at it after you dig it up."

The signature is a name: Lin Yue.

Zhou Lang turned the note over; on the back was another line of text, written in very small letters:

"Killing the steward isn't the steward's job. He's the guardian of the offerings. Killing him won't do any good. You have to return the offerings."

Where should it be sent back? To the third-floor ancestral hall?

The amount of information is increasing, but the puzzle is not yet complete.

Zhou Lang folded the note and put it away. He could now confirm a few things: the "offering" was buried under the third cypress tree, and this item needed to be taken to the third-floor shrine. Killing the steward was a guard's job, not the ultimate goal. The third-floor shrine was sealed off; he would have to find another way to get in.

There's another rule—don't look at it after you dig it out.