"Fujimura Masumi’s illusion?"
After listening to Li Ang’s description, Wang Congshan fell into thought.
"In Fujimura Xiuping’s family’s secret room, there were supposed to be six Noh masks hanging, among which four positions are vacant, leaving only two.
Judging from the number of people in the Fujimura household, they were taken by four family mbers.
Fujimura Xiuping’s wife was taken by a group of people to the Guiquan Well of the Hiratsuka family to kill soone—this group of people is most likely mbers of the Hiratsuka family, otherwise, there’s no explanation for how they could so boldly appear at the Hiratsuka residence.
And the child she killed, wearing the sa mask, might be one of the two children of the Fujimura family.
Wang Congshan roughly organized the current clues, slowly saying: "Is there a possibility that the Hiratsuka family has been conducting a mysterious ritual for generations to achieve so unknown purpose?
This ti, it happened to involve Fujimura Masumi and his mother, and the ritual went wrong, resulting in a disaster,
annihilating the entire Hiratsuka family along with the entire Fate Carving Village, while Fujimura Xiuping himself seems to have turned into a black-haired creature, lingering beside the well for a long ti."
"There’s such a possibility, but currently, it still doesn’t explain other problems."
Li Ang thought for a mont and said: "Based on the clues we gathered, Fujimura Xiuping should not have been just an ordinary Noh mask maker; he had so understanding of the real secret of Fate Carving Village and held a special status.
This is why there is the secret room on the second floor and an unknown passageway in the backyard.
However, he himself eventually turned into a black-haired monster,
one of Fujimura’s two children likely died in the ritual, while the other beca a lone ghost lingering in the shoe cabinet of Fujimura’s house.
The secret passage was not used.
There are four possibilities,
First, his special status did not spare his family from disaster. His family was chosen by an irresistible force.
Second, his special status precisely brought disaster upon him.
Third, the disaster struck too swiftly, so much so that even though Fujimura Xiuping vaguely sensed it, he couldn’t escape with his family in ti."
Wang Congshan furrowed her brow and asked: "What about the fourth possibility?"
"The fourth is that Fujimura Xiuping knew all the consequences, and the current state of Fate Carving Village is sothing he tacitly agreed to or even personally promoted."
Li Ang waved his hand, not getting too caught up in the tangled possibilities, "These are just speculations.
The mission objective has been updated, now requiring us to break the seal of the Relationship Sealing Shrine and explore the interior of the shrine.
Let’s go."
The Hiratsuka residence wasn’t a good place for a vacation, so the two grabbed the Human Head Lantern and left the residence, heading toward the shrine.
On the way, Wang Congshan furrowed her brow, thinking. Ever since entering this fictional world, she had felt like sothing was off,
The information they had collected was too fragnted; at present, they finally had a storyline to piece together all the clues, but there was always a sense of incongruity.
"Ogashira Masashi, what role did he play in this script task?"
As they walked, Wang Congshan said: "Ogashira Ayaka and Tadahira Ogasawara are twin siblings, born in October of Heisei 14,
while their father, Ogashira Masashi, went missing in Heisei 21.
If he hadn’t gone missing, he’d now be around forty or fifty years old.
Reversing back, Ogashira Masashi’s birth ti should be around the 1970s.
The paper left by the folklore scholar recorded the Live Yeast Grinding Song that you ntioned, and that song successfully activated the monsterized brewery worker in the deserted Hiratsuka residence room.
The folklore scholar claims to suffer from amnesia and frequent headaches—if he is indeed Ogashira Masashi, then it all makes sense.
Ogashira Masashi was a resident born in Fate Carving Village; at the ti of the disaster, he was only about ten years old. For so reason, he survived the catastrophe that destroyed Fate Carving Village, forgot his original na, and forgot most of his childhood experiences.
Later, he studied folklore, and for so reason, was drawn back to the ruins of Fate Carving Village, and disappeared thereafter,
while Ogashira Ayaka and Tadahira Ogashira, also due to the sa reason, and in search of their missing father, entered the range of Fate Carving Village.
Moreover, if you think carefully, despite the large area of the Fate Carving Village range, the only specific places worth exploring now are the Fujimura’s, Hiratsuka’s, and Relationship Sealing Shrine,
This inherently proves the special nature of the Fujimura family.
Within the Fujimura household, the clue that one child is biological and the other adopted also hints at sothing..."
Li Ang imdiately understood what Wang Congshan was implying and said: "You’re suggesting that perhaps Ogashira Masashi is one of the escaped children, Yangyi or Ryo.
The approximate birth ti of Ogashira Masashi aligns perfectly with the two children of the Fujimura family."
"Yes."
Wang Congshan nodded slightly and said: "But there’s a problem with this theory,
According to what you said, Fujimura Masumi indeed stabbed the child wearing the Noh mask with scissors.
The injury was so severe that it would require dozens of old Chinese and Western dical experts to conduct a joint consultation to have any chance of saving him.
That child should indeed have died, and died on the spot at the edge of the dry well.
Judging from the various ghostly entities in this world, they are all quite close to earthbound spirits, usually staying at the place where they died and not roaming around.
The Fujimura family had a total of two children, one died by the well, and one stayed as an earthbound spirit in the Fujimura family’s house.
It seems like there’s not much room for giving Ogashira Masashi a spot.
Unless the one who died by the well wasn’t a child of the Fujimura family,
But this leads to another issue—if the ritual required a blood relationship to be involved, and at the ti, Fujimura Xiuping specially put a mask on soone else’s child to protect his own,
then wouldn’t the Hiratsuka family be incompetent if they couldn’t even check the identity by removing the mask?"
Wang Congshan rubbed her brow, muttering to herself, and during their conversation, the two had already reached the Torii gate at the entrance of the Relationship Sealing Shrine.
Li Ang stood in front of the Torii, handed the Human Head Lantern to Wang Congshan, took up the scissors, and cut towards the Shinawa tied at the center of the Torii.
Snap.
The previously tough and unbreakable Shinawa was severed effortlessly with the scissors,
And the Gohei, symbolizing the sanctity of the shrine, turned to flying ashes, dissipating in the wind along with it.
Buzz——
Almost at the mont the Shinawa was destroyed, a long resonance spread across the earth,
The ground beneath their feet began to quake and tremble gently, and behind them, several dozen long cracks appeared on the road covering the hillside that ran through the entire Fate Carving Village.
The resonance that spread through the village slowly cald after a few breaths.
Is this... an earthquake?
Li Ang furrowed his brow, casting a glance at the cracks in the road behind him. The Heart Monkey Staff he carried on him had the passive effect of stabilizing natural disasters.
Even under the suppression of special effects, a geological disaster could still occur in Fate Carving Village...
What really happened in this area?
Puzzled, the two quickly noticed that after the earth’s resonance, the previously dormant, monsterized villagers below Fate Carving Village began to stir,
so squatting in place and wailing continuously,
or banging their heads against the walls and floor,
or wildly attacking each other, even killing each other.
Even more so, so directly broke through the previous implicit boundaries and started progressing along the road toward the hill.
"Let’s go."
Li Ang made a quick decision, grabbed the scissors, and together with Wang Congshan, crossed the Torii and tread up the steps, heading straight for the shrine.
The Relationship Sealing Shrine was composed of several buildings, constructed halfway up the mountain. It covered a vast area, with black tiles and red walls, and lanterns, Ema (wishing boards hung in front of the shrine), and Shinawas were everywhere.
The most crucial main hall had three levels,
The doors were wide open, revealing the pitch-black ground floor hall,
Even before stepping in, Li Ang slled a strong stench of decay,
Only to see that in the wide hall’s floor corners lay many piled bones,
these bones were entwined with one another, male and female, old and young,
The clothes on them, though dusty, still revealed either gorgeous or cheap kimonos and ordinary clothes,
And at the feet of so of these bones, there were scattered Noh masks and sake bottles.
The shape of the bottles matched the Hocoming Wine Li Ang had obtained in the deserted room.
"These people vary in gender and age, including mothers holding children."
Wang Congshan covered her mouth and nose slightly, and said in a deep voice, "All the skeletons are intact, with no obvious cuts from blades or swords, indicating they didn’t die from war or conflict."
If not from struggle, then why were they trapped and killed here?
Collectively consud poisonous mushrooms causing hallucinations?
Everyone drank fake liquor?
Or perhaps... they were abandoned here?
Unlike the Hiratsuka mansion or the Fujimura Family, the Yankoku Shrine was silent, with no traces of monsters,
The two players carefully searched the entire shrine, piecing together so clues from the ema hanging at the shrine entrance.
Yankoku Shrine is quite reputable, maybe due to the efforts of mythology promotion, annually attracting people from across All Day Island to worship the so-called God of Destiny, praying for protection, or asking about marriage, future, etc.
Especially during the every-four-year Yankoku Festival, there are even more visitors to the shrine.
The last ssage on the ema was left in July of Showa 54, coincidentally the ti of the disaster outbreak in Yankoku Village, when landmarks and villagers collectively disappeared.
"No wonder among the victims in the shrine, besides mbers of the Hiratsuka Family and villagers of Yankoku Village, there are outsiders and even foreigners."
Li Ang uttered a contemplative sound, looking at the bulletin board at the shrine entrance.
Due to hosting visitors from various places, the bulletin board included not only Japanese but English and other foreign languages, listing the precautions for visiting Yankoku Shrine.
For instance, no caras allowed, no filming of the shrine’s interior scenes, no unauthorized carrying of tobacco and alcohol, maintain silence, no loud noise, etc.
Aside from that, there are other details,
For example, every four years, the shrine will host Yankoku Festival activities, during which free food and drink are provided, along with Noh performances in the shrine main hall.
If visitors wish to watch the Noh performance, they must follow the rules, wear kimono, don a Noh mask, and drink the beverage called Guiquan Liquor, maintaining silence throughout.
"Guiquan Liquor... brewed using water from Guiquan Well?"
Li Ang uttered a contemplative sound, now it can be confird that Guiquan Well is the center of all the stories in this script task.
Everything starts from there.
"The system’s task for us to explore the shrine and find the hidden secret hasn’t been completed."
He glanced at the dried bones in the corner of the main hall, took a deep breath, retrieved that bottle of Guiquan Liquor from his backpack, and said to Wang Congshan, "If sothing happens to later, rember to help vomit."
"Huh?"
Wang Congshan froze for a mont, then quickly reacted, "You want to drink this bottle of liquor?"
"Yes."
Li Ang nodded calmly, "These clues are already quite clear. The Fujimura family’s Noh mask, the kimono worn by the dried bones scattered in the main hall, and the last bottle of Guiquan Liquor obtained from the abandoned Hiratsuka house.
All factors are assembled,
Given that the big face at the Knotting Room entrance beca enlightened and dissipated after drinking Guiquan Liquor,
Drinking it should evoke a special response in people too."
"..."
Wang Congshan lowered her head in thought for a mont, then placed the Human Head Lantern on the ground, snatched the Guiquan Liquor from Li Ang’s hand, her expression calm, "I’ll drink it."
Li Ang frowned, "This isn’t the ti to get stubborn..."
"It’s not stubbornness,
It’s rational judgnt, logical reasoning, weighing pros and cons—like you."
Wang Congshan’s eyes glead, "If Guiquan Liquor really has a strong mind-ensnaring effect,
Then after I drink it, you can awaken with Enchantnt System spiritual energy.
Or use Self-sculpting System spiritual energy to alleviate my injuries.
Whereas if you drink it and fall into hallucinations,
I have no ans to rescue or help you.
From a purely rational standpoint, I’m more suitable to be the drinker than you.
Moreover,
This script task limits personal strength; I chose the Axis Cube as a prop, and the Traveling Mage as the power system.
The power of Traveling Mage, I haven’t thoroughly figured out even in the real world, and even without personal strength limitation, the power I can exert is limited.
In other words, I’m a drag."
Wang Congshan flipped her palm to reveal the Axis Cube,
She took a deep breath, controlled the cube to swallow the gun on her body,
Then allowed the cube to disgorge an assault rifle, grenades, flashbangs, shock bombs, enchanted ammo magazines that were stored in her inventory.
Retrieving these items consud a large amount of Wang Congshan’s spiritual power,
Her complexion turned slightly pale, as she put away the Axis Cube, handed the assault rifle and other weapon equipnt to Li Ang, speaking steadily, "Being a drag requires the awareness of being a drag,
Being protected cos with the awareness of being protected.
All this equipnt, including the bulletproof vest on , is for you—from a probability standpoint, this offers the optimal chance for us to survive together and clear the task."
"..."
Li Ang gazed into her eyes, seeing from their depths a determination as solid as iron, causing a complicated emotion to rise in his heart.
Sadness, joy, and a touch of lancholy.
"Alright."
Having spent a long ti together, words were no longer needed, Li Ang accepted the weapon equipnt, holding the Human Head Lantern, stepping back half a step.
Wang Congshan took a deep, slightly nervous breath, clasping her palms towards the bones in the corner, expressed an "apology," then unwound the kimono from a woman’s dried bones, and dressed herself in it.
After completing these preparations, she stood at the center of the main hall, pried open the stopper of the Guiquan Liquor,
Slled the elusive fragrance wafting from the bottle, closed her eyes, and drank in one gulp.
Gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp.
Half a bottle of liquor was swallowed without Wang Congshan savoring the taste.
She wiped her mouth corner, donning the Noh mask bearing the "Matsuoka" inscription obtained from the Fujimura family.
A second,
Two seconds.
Nothing happened.
Just as Wang Congshan glanced around, puzzled by the lack of reaction,
Her ears were suddenly flooded by her own drumming heartbeat, and Li Ang’s image, along with the main hall scene, distorted and vanished from view.
Her consciousness stalled briefly,
Wang Congshan blinked and shook her head, discovering she still stood in the main hall, but Li Ang was nowhere in sight.
The shrine’s main doors gaped open, outside light was both dim and bright, as fireworks sporadically pierced the sky, echoing with the sound of firecrackers.
Inside the shrine was brightly lit and spotlessly clean,
Surrounded by nurous people wearing Noh masks, clad in kimono, so even with children along,
They were whispering, awaiting sothing.
Wang Congshan scanned around, herself clad in a dirtied and dusty kimono, yet no one found her odd.
The evening sunlight pouring onto her left no shadow on the ground.
Wang Congshan mused; she didn’t exist in a corporeal form.
This was still Yankoku Shrine,
But it’s the Yankoku Shrine of several decades ago, the day the disaster struck.
She glanced about; the surrounding visitors conversations gradually lowered, replaced by a cacophonous drum music.
Two columns of dancers and musicians erged solemnly from the corridors on either side of the shrine’s main hall, donning Noh masks and kimono, stepping into the center of the hall.
The Yankoku Festival was finally comncing.
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