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墨書 Inktalez
Afterward, they asked a few more questions, but in the end, they gained nothing and had to let the villagers disperse, warning them that the Killer might still be in the village and advising them not to go out alone at night.
Back in the room, Su Jin'er and the others sat dejectedly on the bench. After the earlier ordeal, they were completely unable to sleep. The image of Alang hanging from the ceiling, staring wide-eyed, was terrifying. In this isolated village, they felt utterly lost. Although Gaya Ze was there as a forensic expert, he was just that—a forensic expert, not a police officer. Everyone was completely in the dark. If they couldn't catch the Killer, the villagers might really think they were the ones responsible for the murders.
"Why are we so unlucky? We encounter murder cases wherever we go; it's not like we're filming a TV show," Linyuan said as he collapsed onto the bed in frustration.
Su Jin'er patted Linyuan's shoulder, offering what little comfort she could.
"Isn't that sorcerer supposed to be out? I wonder if he has returned. For some reason, I just feel like something is off with him," Zuo Yi said, stroking his chin with his thumb and forefinger.
"You feel that way too? I have the same feeling," Linyuan exclaimed as he suddenly sat up from the bed, accidentally bumping into Su Jin'er. They both fell back onto the bed in pain.
"How about we go out and take another look?" Su Jin'er suggested while rubbing her sore chin.
Linyuan shook his head and replied, "No way! It's already so late. Have you forgotten what happened last night?"
Su Jin'er certainly hadn't forgotten, but she still didn't believe that such things existed in this world. Sometimes, people could be far more terrifying than those things.
Just then, a pleasant ringing sound echoed through the room; Su Jin'er jumped up in surprise—it was her phone ringing.
Reaching under her pillow, she pulled out her phone. Linyuan and the others also began searching for their phones around the room.
Their phones had all been returned to them; what on earth was going on?
Su Jin'er's phone had an alarm set for midnight. She stared at it in horror as if it were a ticking time bomb.
"Could it be that the sorcerer left his house just to return our phones?" Zuo Yi said incredulously while holding his own phone.
"If that's the case, then that mage must know we went to his house, and he left the door unlocked on purpose," Su Jin'er’s words sent chills down their spines.
This made them even more certain that Killer had been watching them all along.
"How could this be? Could that mage be Killer?" Linyuan said in surprise while checking his phone.
"If the mage is Killer, then why did he kill Alang? Did Alang discover his secret, so he had to silence him?" Su Jin'er bit her lip tightly, her face pale.
At that moment, there was a sudden urgent knocking at the door, startling them as they nervously looked toward it.
"Zuo Yi, it's me, Chu Feifan."
"It's Feifan!" Zuo Yi opened the door to see Chu Feifan and Arian standing outside.
"What took you so long to get here?"
Chu Feifan cautiously glanced around before saying, "Let's talk inside; Arian has something to tell us."
Once inside, everyone sat in the room, anxiously watching Arian. She seemed to be lost in thought, her lips pressed tightly together, and her body trembled slightly.
Finally, Arian gently bit her lip and said, "What I'm about to tell you may sound strange and make you doubt its authenticity, but I swear every word I say is true. I just feel that Alang's death might be related to these events, which is why I agreed to tell Feifan. However, please keep this confidential; you cannot let anyone else know that you are aware of these matters."
They nodded in agreement. Seeing Arian's serious and fearful expression made them believe she wouldn't lie.
Arian noticed their earnest and expectant gazes, licked her lips, and slowly began recounting everything that had happened here, as if she were returning to a distant memory.
Arian was born here, so it was quite normal for her to live in this place. Having never been outside, Arian thought this was the whole world. She had an older brother who was six years older than her, and he always played with her. He was close friends with Alang, A-Jian, and Xiaoyu, who were all born in the same year. Arian and Alang were betrothed as children, and they never questioned why; they simply lived happily in this undisturbed land. Their lives were peaceful and joyful, and at that time, there were more people in the village than there are now—until that year.
That year, Arian was 13 years old, and her brother was 19. He told Arian he was going out to chop wood and would return to play with her. Little Arian wanted to go with him but was refused. However, from that day on, her brother never came back—there was no sign of him alive or dead.
They searched the entire mountain but found nothing. At first, the village chief thought he had gone to the outside world and believed he would return one day because he was a well-behaved and filial child. But months passed without any news of him. Eventually, people in the village began to die one after another in horrifying ways: some had their eyes gouged out and died in agony, others bled to death after having their hands and feet chopped off, and some were burned alive. Everything happened so suddenly that panic spread through the village. In just a few months, dozens of people died, and many others left out of fear.
However, death did not stop; it only paused for a few months. The following summer, the shadow of death returned to the village as people began to go missing again, followed by the discovery of bodies—until a certain person appeared: the sorcerer.
Upon hearing this, they all gasped.
The sorcerer appeared in the village unexpectedly. He told the village chief that they were cursed by evil beings and needed him to lift the curse. At first, the chief did not believe him, but since they could not find the cause of death, he eventually accepted the sorcerer's words. After three days of rituals, the sorcerer claimed that the curse had been lifted but that to completely eradicate it, they must perform a ritual every year using a living person's heart as an offering to the gods for protection. Arian wondered why the chief believed the sorcerer so readily; moreover, he stated that no one from their village could leave—whoever did would die. Initially, no one believed this claim; however, those who had left mysteriously died outside. This made those who remained even more inclined to trust the sorcerer's words.
After hearing Arian's "story," they felt a chill run down their spines. If what Arian said was true, then this killer was not just any killer but a superhuman psychopath who treated murder like a game.
"Has your father kept track of how many people have died?" Su Jin'er asked.
Arian shook her head: "The sorcerer forbade counting. But even without counting, we have an idea—it's probably close to a hundred."
They were shocked; a hundred people had died in two years—that was terrifying! But with so many deaths, hadn’t it caught the police's attention?
This situation seemed too outrageous to believe.
Su Jin'er looked at Arian; her face was tear-streaked and her expression pained—it didn’t seem like she was pretending at all. Yet this story was hard to accept.
Arian looked at them skeptically and said: "Don't say you don't believe me; even I can hardly believe it myself. But this is the truth."
"Have you never doubted the Mage? So many people have died; why didn't you call the police?" Chu Feifan found it unbelievable. Even the craziest person couldn't kill over a hundred people without being discovered!
"The Mage is our god, and only curses have the power to kill that many people."
"Has your brother returned?"
Arian shook his head. "My brother has been missing and hasn't been found. He must be dead; we just haven't found his body."
More and more questions arose. What secrets were hidden in this village? Were Arian's words true? Who was that strange Mage?
Chu Feifan stayed behind. After they sent Arian off, the room fell into silence. Everyone was pondering Arian's words, and no one noticed Arian walking out with a strange smile on his lips.
It was already three in the morning, yet they still had no desire to sleep. The candles had burned down significantly, with thick wax sticking to the table.
Chu Feifan raised his head, frowning as he said, "How can things be this coincidental?"
"Did you discover something?" Zuo Yi asked.
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