Lan Zhi's answer confirmed Jing Minghe's guess. Jing Minghe thought for a moment, and it seemed there was nothing else to ask. He told Lan Zhi, "Go back. Don't cause trouble for us outside. We'll go rescue you."
After Jing Minghe finished speaking, while Lan Zhi was still hesitating, a clear, cold voice issued a command: "Go back."
Jing Minghe saw Lan Zhi visibly tremble upon hearing these two words. He suppressed a smile and adopted a look of earnest advice, saying, "That's right, hurry back where you came from. If you don't go back obediently, you can just dissipate on the spot."
With that, Jing Minghe stood up and looked down at Lan Zhi, threatening her, "If you dare to cause trouble for us, even if we can release you, we'll make your soul scatter. You're a ghost, and we're humans. We don't need to be humane to ghosts."
Lan Zhi looked up at Jing Minghe, then at Chi Hao. She had possessed this human body, originally intending to rely on them to get to the town mayor's house. Unexpectedly, her plan was exposed before she could achieve her goal. These two men before her were so powerful that even a ghost feared them. Since they had promised to save her, she had no other choice now.
Lan Zhi slowly closed her eyes. A wisp of white smoke floated out of Shen Yue's body and flew towards the direction of the arched gate.
The moment Lan Zhi left, Shen Yue's body turned into a skeleton.
Jing Minghe turned to You Mi and asked with concern, "Sister You Mi, are you alright?"
You Mi shook her head. "I'm fine. I was just a little scared thinking that I might have been the one Lan Zhi chose to possess."
"He wouldn't choose you," Chi Hao said. "You're a doctor; you carry merit with you."
"Right," Jing Minghe walked over to You Mi and gently patted her. "Don't overthink it. I'll accompany you on the next mission. For now, let's go back and rest."
Chi Hao had already left. You Mi glanced at the skeleton on the ground, sighed, and asked Jing Minghe, "Minghe, how did Mr. Chi realize that Shen Yue wasn't herself? I spent the most time with Shen Yue, and I didn't notice anything at all. Mr. Chi seems to have even spoken to Shen Yue, right?"
Not only had he not spoken to her, but he probably hadn't even spared her more than a few glances.
This time, Jing Minghe truly didn't know. He actually had more questions in his heart, especially about that sachet. Where did Chi Hao get it, and why did he give it to him?
He had asked Chi Hao this question before, but unfortunately, the man was too lazy to answer.
"Who knows," Jing Minghe touched the slightly stinging wound on his face. "Who cares how he figured it out? In the end, he helped us eliminate a hidden danger."
"Yes, perhaps Mr. Chi is just more sensitive than ordinary people."
Sensitive? Jing Minghe glanced at Chi Hao, who was walking ahead, and felt that the word "sensitive" didn't suit this person at all.
As the three of them passed the opera stage again, Jing Minghe couldn't help but turn his head to look at it. He seemed to see a woman in opera costume performing on stage, and he could even hear her voice.
"Minghe? What are you looking at?" You Mi asked with concern.
Chi Hao, walking ahead, paused upon hearing her voice.
Jing Minghe snapped back to reality, shook his head, and chuckled, "It's nothing. I'm exhausted. I need to get some sleep."
When Jing Minghe and the other two returned, they happened to meet Yue Yang and Guo Wei, who were coming back from behind the arched gate. Yue Yang was holding a dark trough tray, and both of them looked somewhat disheveled.
Their bodies were covered in blood. Guo Wei's arm was dislocated and hung limply at his side, while Yue Yang's face was half-covered in blood.
Seeing that Chen Yi was not there, You Mi stepped forward and asked, "Why are there only two of you? Where is Chen Yi?"
"He's dead," Yue Yang said weakly, leaning against a nearby stone pillar. "This time we didn't encounter those white shadows, but living corpses. And they were all fragmented living corpses. Although their attack power wasn't as strong as those white shadows, there were too many of them."
The person was already dead, so there was no point in saying more. Jing Minghe walked directly over and extended his hand. "Give me the trough tray. You two go and rest."
Yue Yang didn't hesitate and handed the trough tray to Jing Minghe. He then turned to You Mi and asked, "Um, you're a doctor, can you help us clean our wounds?"
"Of course," You Mi said after thinking for a moment. "I remember there seems to be a pharmacy in this ancestral hall. I'll go see if I can find some useful medicine."
She had only taken two steps when You Mi suddenly stopped.
Seeing this, Jing Minghe asked, "Sister You Mi? What's wrong?"
You Mi smiled apologetically. "I almost forgot. The era we're in now, should only have herbal medicine, right? I don't know much about herbs."
"I'll go with you."
"You know herbs?"
"Yes."
Jing Minghe watched Chi Hao and You Mi walk away, raised his eyebrows, and gave a knowing smile. He then turned to Yue Yang and Guo Wei and said, "You two go back to your rooms and rest. We'll talk about the rest after you've recovered."
With that, Jing Minghe prepared to return and study the trough tray in his hands. He hadn't taken two steps before Yue Yang called out to him.
"Jing Minghe."
Jing Minghe turned back upon hearing this.
"How did you manage to come back alive?"
Yue Yang's question was very unfriendly, as if he had hoped Jing Minghe wouldn't return. Guo Wei couldn't help but look at Jing Minghe a few more times. In his impression, Jing Minghe had a good temper and shouldn't be bothered by the injured Yue Yang.
"Oh," Jing Minghe took two steps back and replied with a half-smile, "Because I'm strong. If it were you, you definitely wouldn't have made it back. So, let's all work hard. It's best if we can leave this place before the next midnight hour arrives."
After speaking, Jing Minghe went straight back to his room, giving no one else a chance to speak.
Yue Yang stood there, stunned for a long time, unable to recover.
He had originally hoped that Jing Minghe would tell them how to escape, but instead, he was retorted by Jing Minghe. Thinking about what he had just said, it did have some ambiguity.
He didn't know why, but the first time he saw Jing Minghe in the lounge area, a mysterious hostility rose within him. Yet, they didn't know each other. This inexplicable hostility made him unable to stop observing Jing Minghe. The more he observed, the stranger he felt. Besides hostility, other emotions arose: jealousy and envy.
Although Guo Wei was curious, he didn't want to waste time understanding other people's grudges. He just wanted to leave this damned place quickly.
Guo Wei nudged the still dazed Yue Yang. "Let's go back."
·
Jing Minghe, despite his sleepiness, studied the trough tray alone in his room. The trough tray had seven parallel slots, and each could be removed individually.
The seven slots were arranged neatly by Jing Minghe on the table in front of him.
Jing Minghe propped his head with one hand and idly fiddled with the slots. "Seven slots, what are they for?"
Recalling all the clues they knew that were related to the number seven, Jing Minghe picked up a slot and held it vertically in front of his eyes. The smile on his lips deepened.
"So that's how it is. Then..."
Jing Minghe put down what he was holding and took out the sachet Chi Hao had given him from his pocket. He opened it and poured out everything inside.