"This is..."
Yumi felt a massive headache coming on. They had obtained quite a few clues this time, but none of them were straightforward pointers. Instead, each one was more cryptic than the last.
"Blood as direction, silver light paves the path, seize, double means life, single means death," Yumi recited the combined clues from everyone, her brow furrowing further. "I wonder if the owners of those Black Butterfly Marks possess clues we don't know about."
Qiao Qiao sighed. "Even if they have clues, it's hard for us to get them. Apart from the moment we entered the instance, during the Hunt, we don't seem to encounter them at all. I don't know about you guys, but I haven't run into them once in these two days."
Yumi nodded, indicating she was in the same situation as Qiao Qiao.
Qiao Qiao continued, "But the ones we met during the Hunt were only focused on seizing others' time, making communication impossible."
"Does it matter?" Jing Minghe leaned back comfortably, crossing his legs and fully indulging in the current ease. "The ones who should be anxious are them, not us."
Qiao Qiao asked in confusion, "Why?"
Yumi quickly understood and replied, "Because we definitely have more clues for passing the instance than they do."
"I'm not so sure? We clearly..." Qiao Qiao stopped mid-sentence, then realized. "It's because they knew more of the game's rules from the start, so they'll unconsciously focus on the game itself, rather than looking for clues to pass."
"Right," Yumi chimed in. "And because of the Butterfly Marks, we people just need to protect ourselves from being torn apart by the giant mantis and not have our time seized. But for them, the priority is to kill the giant mantis and get the long needle before their time runs out, find someone whose time can be seized, snatch that time, and only then can they consider looking for clues to pass."
Qiao Qiao nodded and summarized, "So, we are looking for clues to pass while they are trying to find people whose time can be seized."
"Besides that," Jing Minghe glanced at Shi Wan, who had been silent, feeling a slight apology but stating the facts. "We also have an invincible expert like Brother Hao, plus Miss Youmi and Miss Qiao who cannot have their time seized. Therefore, the time available to us will always be more than theirs, no matter what."
Chi Hao, speaking rarely, said, "So, there's no need to waste time on those few people."
"Exactly," Jing Minghe said with absolute certainty. "Instead of wasting time worrying about what clues those people might have that we can't get, it's better to carefully analyze what we have in hand."
Seeing no objections, Jing Minghe began his analysis.
Sitting up straight, he turned to Chi Hao. "Brother Hao, we've seen 'blood as direction' before."
Chi Hao, with perfect synchronicity, uttered, "Blood Butterfly Tide."
Upon hearing Chi Hao utter the words "Blood Butterfly Tide," Qiao Qiao couldn't help but recall a scene she most wished to forget.
Du Heng's tragic death replayed in her mind, causing Qiao Qiao to shiver. She turned and saw Yumi's questioning gaze, and heard Jing Minghe's voice.
"Now, tell us about your experience being chased by the Blood Butterfly Tide?"
Qiao Qiao hummed, lowered her head, and tried to compose herself before slowly beginning, "After dawn the next day, Du Heng and I started searching for clues everywhere. We saw a red butterfly pupa on a drooping leaf. I thought it was strange and told him not to touch it, but he didn't listen. He said it was a clue related to a butterfly pupa that was hard to find, and he had to figure it out."
"What did he do?" Yumi couldn't help but ask.
"He, he stabbed the pupa with a dagger he carried. The moment he pulled the dagger out, those, those butterflies surged out," Qiao Qiao looked up abruptly, her eyes filled with terror. "How could so many butterflies pour out from such a small pupa? So many, a large swarm of terrifying red butterflies, all rushed towards us. We didn't know what would happen, so we could only flee. On the way, we encountered Mr. Chi and Jing Minghe, and then... then..."
Seeing Qiao Qiao struggling to continue, Jing Minghe took over. "Later, as the butterfly tide was catching up to Sister Qiao and Du Heng, we were all frozen and unable to move. The blood butterflies 'ate' Du Heng. But one thing is, the target of the Blood Butterfly Tide was only one person, it was Du Heng. Brother Hao and I tried it; we stood still and let the Blood Butterfly Tide fly past us, completely unharmed."
Jing Minghe paused, then continued. "After being 'eaten' by the blood butterflies, Du Heng's body disintegrated into hundreds of blood butterflies and flew in a certain direction. However, they were too fast, and we couldn't catch up. The original Blood Butterfly Tide fell to the ground, like, like a carpet."
Yumi understood the implication and asked, "So, 'blood as direction' refers to the direction those blood butterflies moved?" Suzhou Novel Network
Jing Minghe nodded. "Very likely."
"What about 'silver light paves the path'?" Yumi pondered, then said, "Could it be that there are white butterflies?"
Mentioning white, Yumi suddenly thought of something and her gaze fell on Jing Minghe, then quickly shifted away.
Others might not know, but she did. Among all the players, Chi Hao and Jing Minghe were unique. Chi Hao had the only Five-Colored Butterfly Mark, and Jing Minghe had the only White Butterfly Mark.
If "silver light paves the path" was truly related to the White Butterfly Mark, then what would Jing Minghe need to do?
Yumi's hands slowly clenched, hoping it wouldn't involve sacrifice.
Jing Minghe saw what Yumi was thinking, smiled faintly at her, and said, "Also, the conditions 'seize' and 'double means life, single means death' are not solely related to color."
These words from Jing Minghe slightly eased Yumi's heart, and new questions quickly arose.
"Then, how do we interpret these two conditions? Does 'seize' refer to seizing or being seized time?"
Jing Minghe shook his head. "I don't think it's time. Perhaps, it's something else."
"Something else?" Yumi was even more confused. "What could it be? Besides time, are there other situations related to seizing? Could it be related to the 'double or single' condition?"
Jing Minghe shook his head and yawned. "I don't know yet. I need to think more. I'm a bit tired. How about we all rest for a while?"
Qiao Qiao, who had wanted to continue the discussion, sensed some unusual movement outside the small space they had built when Jing Minghe spoke. She didn't insist and, like Yumi, nodded in agreement.
After Jing Minghe and the others closed their eyes to rest, Qiao Qiao looked to the side. She didn't know whether to tell Shi Wan about Chen Mo's situation. Perhaps Shi Wan already knew, after all, if they were together before entering the Hunt space and didn't return to their original positions, it was highly likely they wouldn't come back.