On the other side, the boss was drinking coffee in the monitoring room, with his legs crossed, and asked, "Awen, have the rest signs outside been put up?"
"They have, boss."
"Good..." The boss chuckled, his eyes fixed on Mo Chuan, who was gradually approaching the fisherman. He could already imagine Mo Chuan's expression upon seeing the fisherman's face.
But Mo Chuan's next action completely baffled the boss:
Mo Chuan plopped down next to the fisherman, started talking to him, then his whole body flashed with green light. He actually pulled out a grappling hook, attached it to something, and then made eye contact with the fisherman.
Upon seeing this, the fisherman, as expected, fell into the prop bushes, and Mo Chuan even took his hat.
I've been running this haunted house for so many years, and this is the first time I've seen an NPC so scared by a customer...
The boss refused to believe it and grabbed the intercom, saying, "Number two, number two, give him something fierce."
"Yes, boss."
The boss switched his view and began to observe the area where the scholar was.
The scholar was peering around in the bamboo forest. After a while, the intercom rang again with the scholar's voice: "Boss, where's the customer? I can hear screams, why hasn't anyone come yet? Did they run out from the entrance?"
The boss frowned, switched his view to the entrance, and saw that it was empty.
"No... Xiao Zhao, wait a moment, I'll ask again."
"Alright. Boss, take a look."
After speaking, the boss picked up the intercom, just about to call Awen, when he heard strange signal static from the intercom. He thought Mo Chuan had arrived and switched his view back.
He saw the scholar strangling someone wearing a hat, scaring him. But soon, the person wearing the hat grabbed him by the collar and pointed in a direction, shouting loudly. Even the boss could hear what he said: "Ominous! Ominous! Ominous!"
The boss, like the scholar, instinctively looked in the direction Mo Chuan was pointing – but after looking for a long time, he found nothing.
However, the scholar, as if he had seen some evil gods or monsters, visibly faded in the monitoring screen. He then pushed Mo Chuan away fiercely and flew away in a stream of light.
"..."
This time, the boss was speechless.
He took a deep breath and switched his view to the offering shrine.
As expected...
Realizing the gravity of the situation, the boss lit a cigarette and then spoke into the intercom: "All NPCs, please note, we've encountered a peer this time. This customer is a ghost cultivator, and their methods might be even more bizarre than ours. Everyone be mentally prepared, do your best, and try to let him complete the experience within twenty-five minutes."
"Received!"
...
Mo Chuan threw away the hat and quickened his pace.
After walking out of the bamboo forest, there was a wide dirt road ahead. On both sides of the dirt road were low adobe houses, and not far from the water, there were even stilted buildings and bamboo pavilions.
"Not bad... I guess someone in the team has an ability to create illusions like this, otherwise, it wouldn't be this realistic."
As he spoke, Mo Chuan walked towards the large tree at the entrance of the village.
Sitting under the big tree were two or three elderly people. One old woman was tending a fire to cook a pot, seemingly boiling something, while the other two elders ate snacks and drank with each other.
"Young man, would you like a bowl of soup? My bean soup is famous for being delicious."
Mo Chuan saw that this NPC was quite dedicated. He had personally seen the scholar and the short man run in screaming earlier, yet these three people seemed completely unfazed.
"Auntie, give me a bowl, I'll try it."
"Okay..."
The old woman lifted the pot lid. What was being boiled inside was not bean soup at all, but rather eyeballs (fake ones).
The three NPCs secretly watched Mo Chuan's expression, and when they found him completely calm, they felt strange.
"Auntie, please serve me a bowl of soup, I'm starving."
The three NPCs were stunned for a moment and looked at Mo Chuan in unison. Mo Chuan had switched to the 'Crimson Moon' skin and was staring at the old woman with his dark red eyes.
"Ah!!!"
...
The boss numbly watched the monitor, occasionally lifting his cup to take a sip of his now cold coffee.
He had really hit a tough opponent this time. All sixteen NPCs, including two mini-bosses, had been scared away by Mo Chuan.
"..." The boss looked at Mo Chuan getting closer and closer to the final boss's position, and with a bitter expression, he picked up the intercom and said, "Old Chou, it's up to you. If you fail too, I'll have to pay up."
"Don't worry, boss, there's no one I, Chou Yu, can't scare!"
...
Mo Chuan arrived in front of a temple. Based on the information revealed by the NPCs earlier, this should be the place established by the biggest boss of this story – the Sinful Dragon King – for sacrificing living things.
Mo Chuan pushed open the dilapidated and heavy wooden door and entered the temple with a creaking sound.
The temple was brightly lit, with countless incense sticks, offerings, and eternal lamps placed on the long altar. All of them were offerings to Buddhas filling the room.
However, what was enshrined in the very center of the temple was not Sakyamuni Buddha, Maitreya Buddha, Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva, or Medicine Buddha.
Instead, it was a bizarre, pitch-black statue.
Most notably, the entire statue was covered in some sort of writing in red, making it look extremely eerie. The statue had six hands. The left three hands held a bowl, a sword, and a drill respectively, while the right three hands held an eye, a pair of ears, and a tongue. Clearly, these were similar to the characteristics of the NPCs Mo Chuan had seen earlier – lacking one of the three: eyes, ears, or tongue.
On a prayer mat in the center of the main hall sat a thin figure clad in tattered red monk robes. The intermittent chanting and the sound of the wooden fish struck Mo Chuan's heart in rhythm.
Before Mo Chuan could speak, the old monk spoke first.
"Esteemed patron, you visit my humble abode. Are you here to offer incense and worship, to seek a charm for protection, or to seek guidance?"
"Seek guidance."
"Oh?" The old monk stopped tapping the wooden fish and said to Mo Chuan, "May I ask what confusion you have? What do you wish to know?"
"May I ask, Master..." Mo Chuan asked, walking behind the old monk, "Are you human or ghost?"
As Mo Chuan's words fell, all the incense sticks and eternal lamps simultaneously extinguished, plunging the brightly lit hall into complete darkness.
A gust of cold wind blew in, pushing open the dilapidated wooden door with a continuous creaking sound.
The old monk in front of Mo Chuan had turned around by some unknown time, now facing Mo Chuan.
Mo Chuan looked down – the old man's face was as dry and rough as withered tree bark. Upon closer inspection, there were even some blackish-red scales appearing on his face. His eyes were like those of someone with cataracts, lacking pupils, yet they did not prevent one from feeling the ferocity and killing intent in his "gaze."
*Swish—*
All the Buddha statues simultaneously turned their heads, as if afraid to meet the old monk's gaze. All their grand vows of universal salvation and universal illumination were not as important as preserving their own lives.
Tree roots grew from the surrounding beams and pillars, wrapping around the old monk's body and pulling him upwards.
As the tree roots intertwined, a black demonic dragon gradually appeared, and the old monk's face was stuck in the center of the demonic dragon's brow. He stared with his milky white eyes and asked, "It's a demon... Do you have any other questions, patron?"
"One more question."
"Speak."
"Guess if I'm human or ghost."